Count On You
by DarkElements10
Summary: When their formerly abusive father shows interest in remarrying their mother, Kendall and Katie aren't sure how to feel about it. They had only just gotten used to him being around again. There has to be some way to stop it, right? Of course Kendall has a plan. He just should've thought it through more; because there are two sides to one story and different sides to one person.
1. Nothing Lasts Forever

**Count On You**

**By: Riley**

**Summary - When their formerly abusive father shows interest in remarrying their mother, Kendall and Katie aren't sure how to feel about it. They had only just gotten used to him being around again. There has to be some way to stop it, right?**

**NOTE - **Has OCs.

* * *

**.:Chapter One:.**

* * *

"Kendall, Katie, you better get going or you're going to be late," Mrs. Knight called for the umpteenth time in the last twenty minutes.

She wasn't stupid; she knew they were stalling for time. Katie was doing that bit she always did; pretending to be sick in the bathroom while in actuality she was playing a video game. As if the bomb blasts and the tiny sounds of people dying weren't clue enough, not even the unhealthiest person willingly spent an hour in the bathroom.

Kendall, on the other hand, wasn't good at being subtle. Plain and simple. Maybe it was because he was a terrible liar and faker; one of the few things Jennifer—or Kacy as she sometimes preferred to be called by her middle name—nor her ex-husband had been able to pass down to him. It explained why he had never gotten into any of the plays while he was still in school; his acting was abysmal. He had an affinity for copying accents otherwise quitting his job to become an actor, like James was thinking of becoming, was probably not the best idea.

"Mom, I'm nineteen years old, I think I can handle getting somewhere without being told what to do," Kendall said as he rounded the corner to stand in the foyer next to his mother. Mrs. Knight gave him a look that only a mother could, eyebrow raised, arms crossed over her chest, the stance that radiated her confidence in having him do as he was told.

"As your mother, I bet to differ," she said.

"You don't have any faith in me, do you?"

"You're forgetting that it's not long until you go out to Minnesota to play junior hockey," Mrs. Knight pointed out calmly. "And while I'm happy you understand how much responsibility you know have, whether you like it or not, your father is going to go along with you." When Kendall started to protest, she put up her hand. "I'm not having my son out in Minnesota for nine months without any supervision."

Kendall now crossed his arms over his chest, lightly kicking at the ground. "I'll be with the rest of the team and we have coaches for a reason." He shrugged. "And I'll be back every chance I get."

"Yeah, but when you have all of those boys around things seem to get crazy pretty easily," Mrs. Knight pointed out. "It was only a matter of time before my hair started to turn gray, having to worry about you boys getting into trouble at the Palm Woods every day."

"Mom, you dye your hair," Kendall pointed out. His green eyes took on an air of mischief as he looked over her auburn tresses. "For all we know, your hair is pure white." He leaned forward to get a good look at her hair and Mrs. Knight reached up, pushing him back out of her way, causing him to laugh. "Where's your sister?"

Kendall's laughter subsided as he turned to glance back at the stairs. "I really don't think Katie wants to come with us to buy some hockey gear. You only want to get her out of the house."

"Exactly." Mrs. Knight didn't bother to try denying it. Kendall had always been very good at seeing right through her. The many times she had been caught dancing to some of her favorite songs—which she had tried to convince him that she was just cleaning—the times where she had tried to play off her tiredness to be sure her kids had enough presents for holidays and their birthdays, being able to see through the positive face she tried to keep up at all times when there were moments she just wanted to break down and cry.

Her own hazel eyes moved around the foyer that spanned around them. "I haven't had a chance to enjoy myself since I finally got everything moved in and I could use the peace and quiet."

Kendall looked around the foyer as well, taking in the extravagance that his mother had only dreamed of having. It wasn't like the mansion they had for that brief moment in time in Bel-Air; it didn't need to be as big and there wasn't a need for every electronic and piece of furniture to be controlled by the press of a button. No, this was a more comfortable sort of mini-mansion that had been bought for the boys, Mrs. Knight, and Katie shortly before the news of their summer tour and subsequent breakup of the boy band. It was supposed to house all six of them comfortably, and it did Mrs. Knight and Katie just fine, but as the boys have gone all their separate ways, the left over rooms were given to them if they ever wanted a place to stay.

And she enjoyed it, but having spent the time where she wasn't following the boys on tour and holding back her sobs of displeasure of the band coming to an end, she spent cleaning and moving, hoping to get everything into its place and livable. Now that it finally happened, she wasn't going to waste a minute of sinking into that buttery couch and watching as much chick TV she could get her hands on.

"You deserve a lot more than that, Mom," Kendall said honestly. "After being our Momager; driving us to our first appearances and concerts, having to deal with a bunch of teenage boys who probably didn't make anything easy for her…"he gave her a sheepish smile. "You deserve the best. And, I love you."

Mrs. Knight gave Kendall a long look. As much as she appreciated the sentiment, she knew there was something else he wasn't telling her. "What is it?"

"I need some extra money," he said sheepishly. "You said yourself that the money we got from the band we can't use until we're twenty-one, and the money that I got from Sherwood doesn't really go a long way when things out here are so expensive."

Mrs. Knight raised a hand to her forehead. "What about the $300 a week you get with the team?"

"That's for living expenses and since I'm going to be staying with the team in a group house for the most part, when I'm not staying with Dad or doing my school work, I'm probably going to be working at Sherwood again when I'd rather not." Kendall held out his hand. "So I need some money now, please."

"Fine."

Mrs. Knight walked over to her purse, which sat on the table by the front door, and pulled out a couple of twenties. She handed them over to Kendall as Katie came clomping down the stairs, each step showing her disdain. Once she reached the bottom step, she walked over to her mother, holding out her hand as well.

"Sweetie you haven't needed money since you first started getting your allowance," Mrs. Knight pointed out.

Katie's lips twitched and her mother recognized the quick, money-hungry glint that flashed through her eyes. Then it faded and Katie's expression morphed to one of insistence. "I know, but if Kendall's getting money, I should too. Especially since _I'm _the one that has to listen to nothing but hockey mumbo-jumbo for the next three hours."

"I thought you were happy I was chosen to join the Magicians," Kendall said.

"I _am_," Katie admitted. "Because I can get more money off of your autographs now."

Kendall rolled his eyes and took his car keys off of the counter next to Mrs. Knight's purse then placed her hands on Katie's shoulders and steered her towards the front door. "We'll see you later, Mom." He waved over his shoulder, pushing Katie out the door and locking it behind them.

Mrs. Knight waved back as the door closed. She breathed in a deep sigh, immediately reveling in the silence, and walked to the kitchen to start a bowl of popcorn. For the first time in a long time she was ready and willing to do absolutely nothing for the day.

* * *

"What about this one?"

"I don't know...the grip doesn't feel right."

"It's a _hockey stick _just pick one!"

Katie threw her hands into the air and stomped down the aisle of the sporting goods store, running her fingertips over the long row of hockey sticks, threatening to knock them all over…if not pick one up and whack both her father and brother over the head with it until they begged for mercy. Whichever one came first.

"Relax, Katie, we're almost done here," Kevin Knight said. He took the stick back from his son and replaced t on the rack. Not after balancing it in his hand for a few seconds. "Yeah, the grip isn't right on this one, and it seems too lightweight." He placed a hand on his chin and looked over the selections of equipment in front of him once more. "You just need one good stick and then we can get some others when we're back in Minnesota."

"Right." Kendall sat down on the bench that held the pads and helmet they had already selected.

Kevin glanced at him. "You're still not used to the idea of leaving are you?" He asked. "I mean, it was bound to happen, no offense, but boy bands don't live forever."

"I know," Kendall agreed. "It's just…weird not having the guys by my side on the ice anymore." He raised a hand and dropped it to his lap. "I mean, I know they're all happy for me and James is really excited to start his solo career with Gustavo when he's not acting in whatever thing he can get, and Carlos is getting ready for his wedding to Steph and directing some stuff."

"But Logan's going to be in Minnesota too," Kevin pointed out. "Isn't he studying at the University?"

"Yeah," Kendall agreed. "But you know Logan, he's taking every credit he can to maximize his pre-med stuff." He waved his hand. "He's probably going to be studying all the time. But it's not just that, it's missing birthdays and holidays and staying friends with everyone—"

"Yeah, but then you'll get drafted by a major team and will make lots of money," Katie pointed out, coming back up the aisle, holding onto a purple hockey stick. "What's better than that?"

Kevin turned to Katie, eyes narrowing as he crossed his arms. He gazed at her for a long moment until Katie snapped at him for staring. "Sorry, I'm just trying to figure out how we ended up having one kid that's so money hungry."

An uncomfortable silence filled the three Knights and Kevin nodded, turning away. It was going to follow them wherever they went, no matter how much distance they managed to put between them and the past. The fact of the matter was Kevin had been a hockey player at the peak of his prime; having kids seemed to get in the way as he was one step away from going pro and he had to stop so that he could support his family better. He ended up becoming a lawyer and when Kendall started to show his own talents with the sport his father loved, Kevin had turned hungry. He recognized the passion and natural talent in his son and wanted to make sure he was able to get as far as he could. Unfortunately, he had taken it to the extreme and started to push Kendall harder and harder, ultimately living vicariously through him. It alienated Mrs. Knight, who had been staying home to take care of Katie at the time and as their confrontations increased he became more and more pressured, ultimately starting to hit Kendall.

It had all come to a head one night when Mrs. Knight had come back home to find Kendall crying and hiding behind the couch, shaking with fear a fresh bruise on his face, and Kevin pacing back and forth in their room, holding an ice pack to his hand. It had been the last straw and Mrs. Knight had given him the ultimatum to see someone and to get help or to leave. His pride had been too great and he left, abandoning the family and making things hard for them, ultimately having Kendall get a job at the grocery store at thirteen to help his mother make ends meet.

"Don't worry about it, Dad," Kendall reassured him, breaking the silence. He rubbed his hands on the legs of his jeans, almost nervously. "We're…past that and we're better now, right?" Were they past it? Not completely. But they were getting better, after Kevin's resurfacing shortly after the boys had arrived in LA, Kendall and Katie battled having him back in their lives until Kendall turned eighteen and the need for answers on both sides had become too great to ignore.

"Right," Kevin agreed.

"This family moment is all sweet and everything," Katie said sarcastically. She twirled the hockey stick in her hands before holding it against her hip, balancing on it. "But can we please get something to eat now? I'm so hungry that the smell of the footballs in here is torture."

Kevin laughed and reached out, mussing Katie's hair. "Does your mother not feed you?"

"Now that Carlos is out of the house we have nothing but food," Katie said. "Sometimes I don't think she knows what to do with herself. She comes home with so much food that we have to practically give it away."

"She's a mother, Katie, what do you expect," Kendall said. He gathered the sticks and pads, juggling them in his arms as he stood up from the bench. The three walked over to the counter to pay for their items. "Mothers like to take care of people and Mom's always been like that. She's probably just not used to having such an empty house again."

"Who knows," Kevin said. "It may not be so empty for long."

Katie looked sick. "She's not pregnant is she?"

"Ugh!" Kendall's face screwed up with disgust. "Thanks for that mental image." He dropped his items on the counter and took a step back as the cashier started to move through them, scanning the barcodes. Kevin moved down to the card swiper, eyes steady on the screen as the total continued to climb.

Kevin laughed. It wasn't the kind of laugh that went along with something funny. No, it was the sort of laugh that proved he was hiding something from his children. It was something that parents seemed to master over the years, keeping their kids in the dark about things that they had unknowingly referred to or wouldn't be able to understand until much later.

Kendall and Katie exchanged glances before taking the already scanned pucks off of the counter and started to toss them up and down in their hands. "Alright Dad," Kendall said slowly. "What aren't you telling us?"

"And in case you haven't noticed, we have the power here," Katie added.

Kevin glanced back and forth between his son and daughter. "Would you really pelt me with hockey pucks over something as stupid as this?"

"As stupid as what?" Kendall prompted.

"Unbelievable," Kevin murmured. He turned to the cashier and swiped his card through the card swipe, using the electronic pen to put his signature on the transaction, and took the bags that now held their things. He ignored Kendall and Katie as they walked out of the sporting goods store and to his car in the parking lot. "And I thought that Garcia kid was a nut job. Ow!" He brought a hand to the back of his head where a welt formed, having been gently hit by a puck. He turned to face his children, Katie smirking back at him, walking back over from retrieving the puck. "Katie! I could ground you for that!"

"You could try," Katie replied.

"But there's more where that came from," Kendall said, the most evil of grins on his face. "Now, put the bags in the car and tell us what you're…not…telling us."

Kevin shrugged, trying to appear nonchalant. Using his key, he opened the trunk to the car and stuffed the bags inside. With a pointed glance, he took the hockey pucks from his kids and put them in the trunk as well. "I'm not saying anything, Kendall, I've…just been thinking…about your mother and I lately and…what went wrong between the two of us."

Katie snorted.

"It's just that things have been going well between us for a while, we're not the same people we were before…maybe things need to change."

Kendall twisted his mouth to the side. This made no sense. He was dating, his mother was dating, why was he talking like this unless he wanted to…"you want to get back together with Mom?" He asked incredulously. He felt his jaw drop and did his best to close it, but he was frozen. Admittedly, at the beginning, he had dreamed and hoped his father would come back and he and his mother would start things fresh. As time went on he understood that it wasn't going to happen and his own bitterness against his father's leaving them and not having his short-lived childhood abuse confirmed took him over instead. "Are you serious?"

"Really?" Katie's expression mimicked Kendall's.

"I was just thinking about it," Kevin defended himself. He fidgeted with the keys in his hand, running the metal over his fingertips over and over again."

"But…you haven't been around that long and…you'd have to go back to court to get remarried and—"

"We're separated, Kendall," Kevin pointed out. "Not divorced." He pressed his hand to the lid of the trunk and slammed it shut. A serene expression crossed his face. "And nothing lasts forever."

* * *

**A/N: **Why, why ,why are my first chapters always short? (Shorter than my chapters usually are, anyway). Unlike most of the BTR stories I've written, this one is more lighthearted than the ones I've done before. It focuses mainly on the Knights but the rest of BTR and their friends are important too because what they go through affects them. Plus, I had fun writing Kevin's and Mrs. Knight's back stories in _Memories and Melodies _and thought hat revisiting them and their interactions with each other here would be fun.

This story is during BTR season four before they "took a break" (so before the summer tour mentioned in BTDreams) and decided to go their separate ways, though they're still close. That being said, I have some other stories that are set during season 4 when they're still together and others that aren't that I'm working on as well.

This story does include OCs, just a fair warning. Thanks to those that still read and review.

Cheers,

-Riles


	2. He Knew The Real Reason Why

**.:Chapter Two:.**

* * *

"Kendall, I think you're overreacting." Katie barely managed to get the words out before a loud squeal erupted from her mouth, accompanying the swift movement of her arms darting out to grab onto the armrests with white knuckled fingers. Kendall had made a turn around a corner so quickly she was sure the wheels had come off the ground. "Watch it, you maniac! There are other people on the road, you know!"

Kendall made a humming sound in reply, eyes trained on the road, narrowed into a glare rivaling that of liquid acid. His hands continued to tighten on the steering wheel with each passing second, so much so that they started to throb and itch with pain. It wasn't until after coming up to a red light that he relaxed a little bit; his shoulders slumped, dropping his hands from the steering wheel.

"This is so fucked up," he murmured.

Katie glanced at him, eyes widening with surprise. Her brother never particularly liked to curse, being a role model for her he practiced substituting words—"hockey pucks" being one of his favorites—unless the situation called for it. She knew this was bothering him more than he allowed to outwardly show; if not for his clenched jaw and the expression on his face as if he had just smelled something foul.

"Big Brother," she said gently, hoping to get his attention. "We don't know if this is really going to happen." This was strange; normally he was the one reassuring her.

"We don't know that it won't," he shot back.

"But if Mom gave him the chance to leave, and he did, what makes you think she would want to take him back?"

"You never know, Baby Sister." Kendall sat up straight and gripped the steering wheel once more as the light turned green. Katie's cry of fear must have sobered him into driving safely this time. "Mom and Dad have been getting a long lately, he said that himself. And he's right when he says they're only separated."

"What's the difference?" Katie questioned.

Kendall glanced at her. "You practically know how to rob a bank but you don't know the difference between a separation and a divorce?"

Katie stuck her tongue out indignantly before crossing her arms and turning back to face the front of the car. "There are more important things in the world, Kendall. Money being one of them." She rolled her eyes. "And who cares what the difference between a separation and a divorce is? They're not getting back together!"

Kendall was silent for a moment. Did she really believe that? "A divorce is when both of the parents decide to break their marriage. A separation is when the parents decide that they don't want to be together anymore, but that doesn't mean that they don't love each other. In other words, he's still married to Mom."

"Oh." Katie's nose wrinkled. "So then why does he want to _re-_marry her?"

"I don't know. To be romantic I guess."

"And you're _proud _to have taken that from him?"

"Shut up, Katie."

Kendall and Katie continue to drive in silence, each consumed with their own thoughts, before arriving at the Palm Woods. Kendall spotted their mother's car in its normal parking lot. _She must be moving more stuff into the house, _he thought as the two climbed out of the car. He relaxed a little bit. That would hold things off for a bit. She would be too stressed to even think about getting back with his father. Besides, she was dating someone right now, so that put a huge monkey wrench into his plan. The Knight siblings went up to 2J and stopped short when they opened the door, finding Logan Mitchell on the floor with his hands around Carlos Garcia's neck while the latter teen had a pillow and was whacking Logan over the head with it.

James Diamond, rather than trying to stop the two from fighting, was sitting on the orange couch, holding onto a video game controller, burning holes into the TV screen as he continued to play Battle Blaster.

"What are you _doing_?" Katie asked as Kendall closed the door behind them.

"Logan is trying to _kill me_!" Carlos managed to choke out. He put an arm up and shoved Logan's face away from him, knocking him off his back. Then, with a loud scream, he leapt to his feet and raced over to Kendall, grabbing onto his shoulders and diving behind him. Logan, who had fallen to the floor, got to his feet as well. Reaching over, he plucked a waterlogged novel off of the table and shook it around, droplets of water falling to the floor. "Don't let him get me!"

"What happened?" Kendall shouted over the noise of aliens being blown apart on TV.

James barely glanced at him. "Hey Dude, back so soon?"

"What happened?" Kendall repeated the question for Logan.

"I was minding my own business, reading my book because I'm trying to get it done before the month ends and Carlos wouldn't stop bothering me!" Logan thumped the front of the book, causing more water droplets to fall to the floor. "I told him I was reading, but he grabbed my book and threw it into the toilet!"

"I didn't _throw it_," Carlos defended himself, hands digging into Kendall's shoulders hard enough that he started to squirm. "I frisbeed it! I wanted to see how well it was going to do as a Frisbee. It's not _my fault _that he was sitting at the counter and the direction I just so happened to throw it in was in the bathroom where the toilet seat was still up."

"I thought Mom told you to stop doing that!" Katie snapped.

Carlos's expression was that of confusion. Dropping his hands from Kendall's shoulders, he turned to face Katie. "She never told me to stop throwing books into toilets."

"Who would need to?!" Logan screeched.

"No!" Kate placed her hands on her hips. "Leaving the toilet seat up! After that one time you did that and Mom fell in…when it hadn't been flushed yet." Kendall, Logan, Carlos, and James all winced at the memory as Katie nodded. She then turned to Logan. "And if that fell into the toilet, why are you still holding it?"

Logan looked down at the book in his hand and quickly threw it to the floor, his face twisting up in disgust. He frantically wiped his hands on the leg of his jeans as Carlos came out from behind the leader of the boy band. Crisis averted, James paused his video game and turned to face the Knight siblings. "So how did shopping with your Dad go? Did you remember to ask him if he would get me some barracuda products?"

"No," Kendall said quickly. "Something else happened. Something important." At the boys' curious looks, Kendall glanced at Katie then back at his best friends. "My Dad wants to get back together with My Mom." James, Logan, and Carlos all made different sounds of shock and surprise. James's mini-scream, bringing his hands to his hair, and widening his eyes, caused Kendall to laugh a little. "I'm glad you guys care that much."

"But…why would he want to do that?" Carlos asked. "I mean, not only was he mean to her at times but he…" He trailed off as Kendall nodded. The blonde teenager could still feel the way Kevin's fists and feet and inflicted the most pain he had ever felt on his body. He still remembered the ranting and raving, the emasculating words and the way he was punished on the ice, getting run ragged before he was able to stop and rest even for a little bit.

_"Get up! Do it again!"_

_"You call that skating; you can do better than that, Kendall."_

_"Don't you dare come whining to me when you were the one that screwed up that play. You and I both know you can do better."_

_"You're so pathetic."_

Kendall shook his head, pushing away the words as they continued to float around him at dizzying speeds. They continued to echo around him, haunting him in his dreams whenever he allowed himself to think about it. When Kevin had first come back into his life, three years before, it was as if his nightmares were coming true in real time, in the reality he had just started to get used to. Though in the past year Kendall had started to allow Kevin back into his life and recapture his position of being his father, there was always the small part of him that wondered what it would take for Kevin to revert back to the way he used to be.

"Why would she want to go back to that?" Carlos asked innocently.

"We don't know what she wants to do," Katie reminded him. "That's what Dad wants."

"Wait." Logan held up his hands. "Aren't you guys forgetting that Mama Knight is dating Ronan now, and has been for months? I think you're jumping to conclusions a little."

James pointed over at Logan, nodding. "He's right. My Dad has been saying that he'd want to get back together with my Mom a long time." He then gave an inappropriate smile, laughing to himself. "Then he remembers that she always busts his balls and decides it's not a good idea. But he's always talking about it." He scratched the back of his neck. "Personally, I think they're better apart, but it's not something that really any of my business."

"Yeah…" Kendall walked over to the orange couch and sat down, slouching so far that his butt nearly fell off the edge of the seat.

He crossed his legs at the knee, resting his hands on his chest. James did have a point. In a way, what his father wanted to do with his mother wasn't any of his business. What was important was making their relationship work out while he got ready to go play hockey in Minnesota. Or else things would be awkward, if not go back to the way things had been before. _No, _he thought. What if they did get back together and something snapped inside Kevin and he started to hurt his mother? He couldn't let that happen.

But would she? He didn't know. His mother was very good at being a Mama Bear for her ids as well as others that she was looking after for the time being. She wasn't a small and meek woman that did nothing but bake, cook, and do laundry. She did everything a mother and a father was supposed to do, being able to raise Kendall and Katie the best way she knew how as long as Kevin was gone. But what did that mean if Kevin had started to hurt her? Would she fight back and push him away again? Or would she do what Kendall had done and think everything was his fault and allow himself to take each and every blow.

He had never been like that before, often protecting Logan from bullies—if he wasn't teasing him himself—it wasn't like his mother was immune to it. It happened more often than anyone would think.

_I won't let that happen to her._

The door to the apartment opened once more and all eyes turned to Mrs. Knight, as she walked into the apartment, carrying a basket under her arm. Closing the door behind her, she turned and stopped short, noticing all eyes on her. "What?" She asked, walking over to the counter and dropping the basket on top. "I didn't mix up your underwear this time," she said, holding some of them up for emphasis. "After the incident where James had on Logan's—"

"—we're not talking about that anymore!" James declared loudly. "That's why we have the code!"

Mrs. Knight rolled her eyes.

"Mom." Katie turned to face her mother after holding a hand out to Kendall, silently reassuring him that she had the situation handled. "You're going out with Ronan tonight, right? Or, this weekend or something? Isn't it your anniversary soon?" She flashed her mother a sweet smile, to which Mr. Knight gave her a suspicious glance to. Then the suspicions faded to an air of sadness.

"Actually." She reached up and used her fingertip to flick some of her hair out of her face. She kept her gaze away from the teenagers in front of her. "Actually, I was…going to tell you…um…" she licked her lips then cleared her throat then looked at the boys and Katie once more. "Ronan and I decided to take a break from each other for a while. Things have become really hectic, they're starting their music again, and you guys are taking a break or broke up or whatever and we decided that it's not the best time for us to continue dating."

Kendall's and Katie's mouths dropped open. There was no way it was possible. She and Ronan McGuire had nothing short of an instant attraction to each other when she, the boys, and Katie had first arrived in Los Angeles. Being the music producer of the band that the boys were contracted to work with, who had quickly become their best friends, the two have quickly formed a friendship and understanding with each other. Even when he had found himself unsure and anxiety ridden over adopting his clients after finding their foster father and manager was abusing them, Mrs. Knight was there to help him sort out his feelings about it, ultimately deciding to adopt them. Even when his adoptive daughter, Riley, and had started to date Kendall, they acknowledged the problems that could arise but decided to take the risk and started going out themselves.

Their relationship had been strong since then, no one would have seen the breakup coming. Not even having to deal with Gustavo's constant opinions of how it will keep them distracted from their work—which proved not to be true—had faze them. There had to be more to the story than that.

"I know it comes as a shock," she continued.

"Uh, yeah!" James agreed.

"You're not getting any younger, Mama Knight, you might not be able to find someone else to—"Logan immediately cut himself off at the expression that was equal measures of shock and offense that registered over Mrs. Knight's face. The same look she had given him when he had thought she was older than 64 years old when trying to convince her to let them house sit Gustavo's mansion. "Th-that's not what I meant. I swear."

"It's OK, sweetie, I know what you meant," Mrs. Knight reassured him. She then addressed everyone. "Like I said, it was a mutual decision and we thought it was best for us at the moment. We might get back together we might not."

Kendall's eyes narrowed. "Have you told Dad this?" At his mother's confused blink, Kendall waited quietly for an answer. _It would make sense…why he's suddenly talking about wanting to marry her again…_He continued to sit on the couch, hiding his hands n his lap as he clenched them into fists.

"It may have come up in conversation, I don't know." Mrs. Knight turned and grabbed the laundry basket off of the counter once more and turned her back, walking to the room that she and Katie shared. "I don't really want to talk about it right now." Once she was out of the room, everyone turned to Kendall, whose eyes were narrowed.

Katie went over to her brother and sat down at his side. "What are we going to do?" She asked. "You must have a plan or something."

"Maybe," Kendall said dismissively. He seemed stunned by the news, not exactly focusing on anything other than the words that had come out of his mother's mouth. If she and Ronan had broken up and she didn't plan on dating anytime soon, it was only a matter of time until their father managed to weaken her defenses. They were married some time before and she had never said she didn't love him anymore…was it still worth it to risk the pain she could feel? "I don't know yet." He looked at his watch. "Actually, I have to get back to my apartment; I'll see you guys later." He got up from the couch and started towards the door.

James stopped him, placing his hand on his best friend's shoulder. "Are you going to be ok, dude?"

Kendall nodded. "I'll be fine." He smiled at his friends before leaving the apartment and the Palm Woods. He climbed into his car and turned it on, pulling out of the parking lot and headed out onto the road, going back to his own apartment, before pulling his phone out and calling his girlfriend.

"Hey Hockey-Head," Riley Jackson-McGuire answered. "What's up?"

Normally Kendall would have shown a tiny bit of irritation at the nickname she constantly called him—however he was too preoccupied with the news he had just received to put too much thought to it. Besides, it was better than her calling him by his actual name, meaning she was mad at him or someone about something. "Hey," Kendall replied. "Are you back at the apartment right now?"

There was the sound of something crashing in the background and he could hear hysterical laughter before Riley came back on the line. "No, I'm at my house. We decided to do some recording here today and, apparently, Ronan can't leave his office for one reason or another." There was another clanging sound and this time Kendall could hear Riley's twin, Rhuben snap, "Patrick!"

"Sorry," Patrick Jackson-McGuire replied, his voice becoming high-pitched. "Who leaves a pan sitting that close to the edge of the counter?"

Kendall smiled a little.

"Why?" Riley asked. "You sound funny, what's wrong?"

Kendall's smile widened slightly. "Has Ronan said anything to you guys about him and my mom?"

"What about, Hockey-Head, you're going to have to be a bit more specific than that."

"Did he tell you that they broke up?"

There was a long moment of silence on her end of the phone and he could hear the Jacksons siblings asking her what was wrong. When she explained what Kendall had just told her, he could hear their cries of shock and surprise as well. Then Sydney, the youngest, came on the line. "When did they break up?"

"I'm not sure," Kendall replied. "Mom only just told us."

"And he didn't tell _us_?" Now Patrick was on the phone. "That's messed up!" Then there was the sound of thudding footsteps. "Don't worry; we'll get to the bottom of it." Kendall waited as there was a scratching sound and Riley came back on the line. "We'll go talk to him about it now, it would explain why he's been so…off lately."

"At least he's reacted to it, Mom just keeps going on as if nothing happened," Kendall said.

"Huh. She must be spending too much time with me," Riley said. Kendall could imagine the smirk that was on her face.

"Yeah, telling you too many embarrassing stories about me," Kendall agreed. "I'll see you when you get back here, I guess."

"How else are you going to eat? God knows I'm not going to let you cook for me again. Not after you fucking gave me food poisoning from that breakfast in bed last week," Riley said, laughing.

"I was trying to be romantic," Kendall defended himself.

"Oh yeah, chundering my guts out was so romantic, I fell for you all over again," Riley said sarcastically. He knew she was rolling her eyes. ""I'll see you back there."

"Alright. Later."

"Hoo roo."

Kendall hung up the phone and slowed down at a red light and leaned forward, resting his head on the steering wheel. He wondered what would hurt more; getting into a car accident at that moment or sitting back and watch his mother get hurt by his father again.

* * *

"Ronan!"

"Dad!"

"Ronan!"

"Dad!"

Ronan McGuire sighed heavily as he turned away from his computer. Reaching up, he pulled earplugs out of his ears at the exact moment there was a loud bang on the door to his office accompanying loud laughter. He watched as the door opened and Riley and Noah fell to the floor, curling up and holding onto their noses as Rhuben, Patrick, and Sydney all laughed. Ronan chuckled as he looked down at them.

"How did you do that?" Sydney asked, standing over them.

"I tripped over her big feet," Noah mumbled, still holding onto his nose. Riley reached out and punched her brother on the arm.

"Your feet are bigger than mine!"

Ronan cleared his throat to get their attention. "Did you want something?" He asked, turning back to his computer and pulling up an e-mail. His green eyes skimmed over it for a moment, though he was reading it over and over again, not taking in the words that were in front of him. "I have a lot of work I need to get done and I banished you to the kitchen for a reason."

"When did you and Mrs. Knight break up?" Rhuben got straight to the point, walking over to the desk and resting her hands on it, leaning towards her adoptive father. "Why didn't you tell us?"

"And more importantly,"—Patrick shoved his purple and black clad sister out of the way to address his father himself—"what's for dinner?"

Rhuben shoved him back out of the way, blowing her purple strand of hair out of her face. She crossed her arms over his chest. "What happened?"

Ronan leaned back into his seat and looked up at the ceiling as his kids gathered around the desk, squeezing into three chairs for the five of them. He looked at them out of the corner of his eye before glancing away again. All give black haired blue eyed siblings were staring intently at him and he knew he wasn't going to get them to leave him alone unless he answered their questions. Placing his foot on the floor he spun so that he faced all of them.

"You can tell us," Noah added. He flicked his head to the side, moving his long fringe out of his face.

"Yeah," Patrick chimed in. "We won't judge you."

"Patrick!" Riley and Rhuben snapped.

"What? We won't."

Ronan laughed.

Sydney twisted his mouth to the side. "You _do _know that keeping things inside and shutting us out isn't going to do anything to alleviate the problem, yeah?" He raised his eyebrow. "And the fact that you're already so stressed as it is, which we problem don't help much, there's a good chance you're a step away from a mental breakdown." Like a therapist, he placed his hands in his lap. "So what happened?"

Ronan smiled. He crossed his arms and leaned towards them, holding onto his elbows. "As much as I'd like to tell you guys not to worry about me, I know that's like telling you not to breathe." He shook his head and sighed again. "Nothing really happened; we just agreed that now isn't a good time for us to date." He motioned to himself. "I'm busy working on your guys' music and getting more people to my label as well as the press that's coming around with you guys coming off your yearlong break."

Riley looked skeptical. She tilted her head to the side, eyebrows coming together. "And she agreed to that?" She paused. "Really?"

"That doesn't sound like her," Rhuben added.

The Jacksons had practically tried to shove the idea of Ronan and Mrs. Knight getting together at him since the first few days they had met. Though when he had met her he didn't know she was Kendall's mother, he had said he had coffee with someone at a restaurant. And while they weren't his children at the time, they immediately bombarded him with questions asking whether or not they were going to date or trying to force them into it. They had even cheered the first time Ronan said they were going out on a real date. Ronan had taken it all in stride, knowing how nosy and prying they could be.

"What with Kendall having moved out of the crib and then she and Katie moving into that new house we got them and the guys going their separate ways after this upcoming summer tour and figuring out what she's going to do next, it's too stressful," Ronan defended her. He shrugged. "So we decided to take a break." He held his hands up. "But we're still friends."

"Does that ever really work?" Patrick asked skeptically. Instead of being yelled at by his siblings again, he continued to speak, concerned. "I mean, doesn't it hurt too much to break up and constantly see them around?"

"Why don't you ask Logan and Rhu that?" Sydney said with a cheeky smile, causing Rhuben to reach out and push his face away.

"Are you OK?" Noah asked.

Ronan smiled and nodded. "I'm fine," he replied. "Don't worry about me." He turned back to his computer, picking up earplugs. "Now, I need to get back to work so if you could _please_ be quiet for once, I can get this done and my company won't go bankrupt and go down the tubes." He leaned forward and pretended to read the e-mail that continued to sit on his computer screen as his kids left the office, closing the door behind them.

He slouched in his seat, bringing his hands up over his face, running them down until he rubbed at the stubble that rested above his lip and around his chin. He wondered how they would have reacted if they knew she was the one that had broken up with him.

And that he knew the real reason why.

* * *

**A/N: **Because of something I have planned for the story, I had to change the time frame of this story. So it's now before BTR took their break/go on their summer tour, rather than after. Though it doesn't affect much of the story, thankfully. So BTR is over, but they haven't announced it or gone on their tour yet. Hmm, I think I may have put a bit too much dialogue in this chapter, but I always go back and forth with that.

Next chapter brings in other BTR characters as well as really starts out the plot of the story.

Thanks to _Kessa, Guardian'sDragonOfDeath, Kaleigh, Chey21, Ethan,_ and _Rage-Against-Time_ for reviewing as well as _1234irrek_ and _k3luver_ for adding the story to favorites and _CUTE CARGAN LOVE, Chey21,_ and _winterschild11_ for adding it to alerts.

I hope you enjoyed the chapter and I'll update again soon.

Cheers,

-Riles


	3. I Don't Think I Can Promise That

**.:Chapter Three:.**

* * *

There was a long lull of stunned silence as Kendall and Katie waited for their friends' reactions to what they had just told them. Katie pressed her lips together, running her hands over each other in her lap, shooting looks at her brother as he sat across the restaurant table. It had been an impromptu outing; Kendall had suggested that they get all of their friends together and tell them what was going on all at once, rather than try to keep it a secret or cause confusion when only a few people were told at a time.

"Your Dad wants to get back together with Mama Knight?" Sydney's right eyebrow lowered in confusion. "That's kinda…aggro."

"Weird is the understatement of the century, bro," Patrick remarked. "It sounds like there's something else going on there, mate." He drummed his fingertips on the table top. "Especially considering she and Ronan _just so happened_ to break-up around the same time this is going on."

"Exactly." Kendall nodded, leaning back in his seat.

His eyes moved across the pavilion of The Grove as he and his friends sat at the outdoor restaurant. Fans waved, shrieked, and screamed as they walked by, not sure if they wanted to get too close to ask for an autograph. Either that or they were too scared and nervous, seeing Big Time Rush and the DarkElements in the flesh. He wished they would just come over and say 'hi' or ask to take some pictures or something. It would take a bit of the pressure and his edge off.

"That's why he thinks it's some sort of a conspiracy and that Mom may have said something to Dad about it and that's why he's trying to get back together with her," Katie added. She reached out and slapped her hand on top of Patrick's, dragging her boyfriend's hand back down to his side, shooting him a look of annoyance. He flashed her a warm smile, wrapping his hand around hers.

"Wait!" Stephanie King, who was sitting at the head of her table, held out her hands. "Why is it bad that he wants to at least try and talk to her again?" She brushed her long hair behind her shoulders. "I mean, how do you know that this isn't a good thing for you guys?"

An uncomfortable hush fell over the table.

Kendall leaned forward and ran his hands over his face. Of course they didn't know the real reason why he didn't want them to get back together. That was something he hoped he would never have to explain…if not wait a while until he had to. As it was, the only people that knew were Kevin, his mother, Katie, James, Carlos, Logan, and probably Jo Taylor. He remembered telling her but the two of them had never brought it up again. Even now he wasn't sure if she remembered it, and as his eyes moved across the table to look at her, she turned away. Not being able to tell his other best friends was hard, it was starting to take its toll on him, especially considering he wasn't sure how they'd react.

Jo reacted exactly how he had thought she would, with compassion and understanding. Camille would probably fly off the handle, like she had done when she found out about Lucy's boyfriend Beau, Stephanie would probably be concerned for him, but the Jacksons...as far as he was concerned, they'd probably stop behind his friend because he kept it a secret.

Kendal continued to look at Jo, trying to catch her eye, but she continued to look away from him.

_Maybe to keep the attention off her, _he thought.

He could only be so lucky.

"What?" Camille Roberts let out a nervous laugh, noticing the silence around the table. "Did she say something wrong?"

"No," Logan said as calmly as he could. He took his girlfriend's hand, gently rubbing his thumb over the back of it. "It's just that it's been a while since Kevin has been back at all, and even through this last year, Kendall and Katie haven't really spent a lot of time with him." He licked his lips. "Now, all of a sudden, he wants to have the four of them be a big, happy, family again?"

"What's so bad about that?" Camille asked.

"Sounds like a load of crap if you ask me," Rhuben commented.

"Not necessarily," Riley said, holding up a finger. She used that finger to brush her red strand of hair from her blue eyes. "I mean, think of it this way, the guy hasn't seen his family in years and he's trying his hardest to make things back to the way they were. Seems to me he's just lonely."

Kendall's eyes shifted to her, narrowing. Katie rested her forehead against her fingertips, letting out a shallow breath. On her other side, Noah reached out and gently rubbed her back. She could tell a fight was only moments away from breaking out. And that was the last thing any of them wanted.

"Please don't tell me that you're taking his side on this," Kendall said to Riley.

Riley looked offended. "_No_, I'm not fucking taking his side, Kendall!" Her eyes narrowed as well. "I'm just saying that there are always two sides to every story and you should take it into consideration, yeah?" Her face then softened. "You're forgetting this is affecting Ronan, too."

James, who had been strangely quiet ever since they had gotten to the restaurant and placed their orders, cleared his throat, sitting up straight. He laced his fingers together, resting his elbows on the table as he did so. "So what are we going to do?" He asked. "There has to be something that we can do to make sure this…doesn't happen."

"Is it really our business though?" Jo asked. She twisted the end of her long ponytail around her finger. This time she looked at Kendall and he looked back at her with an expression of betrayal, causing her to sigh loudly. That was exactly what she had wanted to avoid, giving her opinion when she really knew what happened.

She understood Kendall's dilemma completely. How could someone that have abused his son so badly, even if only for a short period of time, want to get back together with the woman and children he had left? How were Kendall and Katie supposed to welcome him back with open arms?

Even in the past year when Kendall started to talk to his father more, he was still very hesitant about what he shared and the things they did together. So far they only played a couple of games of hockey went to lunch or dinner, and he had spent a weekend at his father's apartment a few times, otherwise they weren't anywhere near being best friends like Carlos and his father were.

"I'm just saying that this is really Mrs. Knight's, Mr. Knight's, and Ronan's business," Jo continued. "They're the ones that have to get through this; it's their feelings that are on the line." She shrugged again. "Your mother is a smart woman; I think she can take care of herself."

"We're going through this too," Katie protested. "We're the ones that are going to be directly affected by her decision," she said. Her voice lowered. "Just like when he left the first time."

"I have a plan," Kendall continued.

"Of course you do, mate," Sydney piped up.

Kendall slowly started to smile, the mischievous light that was always present whenever he had a plan, coming to his eyes. "We're going to get Mom and Ronan back together. By any means necessary."

Noah's nose wrinkled. "Do you actually mean 'get them back together'? Or do you mean '_force _them back together?"

"Why? Are you not going to help?" Carlos asked.

"Of course we're going to help." Noah snorted.

"It's just that he said get them back together not force," Riley explained. "There's a difference."

"Just know that we won't hesitate to throw him under the bus when we get caught," Rhuben added.

"Notice that she said _when _and not _if_," Patrick concluded.

The laughter that erupted around the table broke the tension and the subject was changed to a lighter topic of conversation. Even Kendall and Katie loosened up, laughing and joking along with the others throughout their lunch. Even when their food arrived and they had stayed for a couple hours longer, the conversation never went back to Kevin and what they were going to do about it.

It seemed that as long as Kendall and Katie weren't reminded of their father, everything was going to be OK. But that didn't mean he was going to stay away forever, as much as they wanted him to.

* * *

"James? Are you OK?" James looked away from a store window and turned to face Carlos, as he stood at his side. Looking over his shoulder, James saw that Jo and Stephanie were still busy at the makeup counter, testing out mascara wands and different shades of lipstick. "You've been really quiet since we left the restaurant."

James turned from the window and ran his hands over his hair, letting out a slow breath. He should have known Carlos was going to be the one to notice he wasn't being himself. As much as he tried to keep from letting his mood put a downer on everything, he still couldn't help what he was feeling.

"Look, James…" Carlos placed his hand on his best friend's shoulder. "We're all worried about Mama Knight and Kendall and Katie. We're not going to let anything happen to them."

"I know," James agreed. "I wouldn't be able to live with myself if we did nothing and Kevin ended up hurt her…or doing something worse." He swallowed thickly. "Do you know if your Dad could do anything? Maybe set up a sting or something."

Carlos shook his head, giving a half smile. "Papi can only deal with things back in Minnesota," she said kindly. "Though I'm sure he's found some way to keep an eye on me while we've been out here." He raised a hand into the air before slapping it down on his side. "I mean, how do you think he 'just so happened' to get back here when my helmet went missing?"

"Your Dad was always kind of scary like that," James murmured. He licked his lips, crossing his arms over his chest. Even though he hard Carlos's words before, it just didn't settle with him. He wasn't going to sit back and have something happen when he could have prevented it somehow. "Are you _sure _there's nothing your Dad can do?"

Carlos blinked at him for a moment. "No, James." He shook his head. "This sucks for all of us. Having Kevin back…it was weird for me too, not just because he was someone I never really got to know…but because of how badly he had hurt Kendall before. How do we know he's not going to do it again?"

James's hands clenched into fists.

"The least we can do is hope that Mama Knight is smart enough to see through him—"

"—She was in love with him before, how do we know that she still doesn't love him and was just waiting for him to come back?" James interrupted.

"How do we know she's not?" Carlos countered.

James pushed himself away from the store and started to aimlessly wander away, Carlos followed after him "You don't get it, Carlos," James said. He stopped and placed his hand son his hips, looking away for a moment. "I mean, I know that all four of us, Mama Knight treats us like we're her own children, but in a way I feel like I am her own son."

Carlos tilted his head to the side, confusion evident on his face.

James sighed, licking his lips. "My parents got divorced a few years before Kendall's Dad left them. And in that time, Mama Knight helped me out a lot. She let me sleep over as much as I want. She let me stay for whatever meal I wanted. She gave me advice and treated me like her own son, giving me the attention and love that my Mom couldn't because she put herself deep into her work after the divorce."

He painfully looked away. He knew his mother loved him dearly and she had been as hurt by the divorce as he had been. Instead of talking to James about it and trying to help the two move on, she had turned her attention to her cosmetics company, doing her best to turn it into the multi-million company she had dreamed it would be. She had also turned her attention to grooming him into taking over the company from her when she decided to step down.

James tried his hardest to talk to her about how he was feeling of his own father leaving but she hadn't listened. He wasn't sure how he would feel if his own father tried to get back with his mother—which was an absurd thought in itself.

James rubbed the back of his neck. "So, I don't know," he continued. "I guess I feel like I need to protect her, and Kendall and Katie. I have no idea if Kevin really wants to get back together with Mrs. Knight for the reasons he says, all I know is that I don't want anything to happen to any of them."

"I understand," Carlos said gently. He looked over his shoulder as the girls walked back over to them. "And if you ever need anyone to talk to…I might not understand, but I'll do my best to listen."

"Thanks, Carlos." James smiled.

But Carlos was right, he wouldn't understand. He had a mother and father that loved him dearly and would do anything for him. In a way, he felt left out in that aspect; Kendall's parents' were separated, James's were divorced, and Logan's father was in jail. He was the only one that had a completely happy home life and he had moments where he wasn't sure if the other boys resented him for it. Instead of dwelling, however, he did his best to make sure that his home was open to all of the boys and that his parents cared about them as much as they cared about him.

"You're welcome." Carlos beamed back glad he had been able to help in some way. Stephanie moved up to his side and put his arm around her shorter boyfriend's shoulders. "Did you find anything you liked?" He asked.

"A couple of things," she replied. "I'm going to have to wait for the money from my net film project before I get anything, though."

"With how much you girls spend on makeup, you should be glad you haven't been paid yet," James joked, doing his best to keep up appearances. Jo rolled her eyes and punched him on the arm. "Ow! I'm just telling the truth."

"What?" Jo teased. "That I have more makeup than you do?"

"It's _not _makeup!" James protested. He stuck his nose in the air. "It's the Barracuda Man Sculpting line." Turning, he pointed his finger in her face, poking the tip of her nose. "Get it right. I don't want them to know their biggest fan's girlfriend makes fun of it. I might lose my endorsement."

"You don't _have _an endorsement with Cuda," Carlos protested.

"Don't crush my dreams, 'Los!" James snapped. "I didn't crush yours when Sparky ran away!"

Carlos's eyes widened. "He ran away?" His lower jaw started to tremble, a slight whimper coming out of his mouth. "Mami and Papi told me that he was sent to a farm to socialize with other dogs."

James laughed as Stephanie gave her boyfriend a gently kiss on the cheek and Jo elbowed the tall brunette in the side. He put his arm around Jo's shoulders and pulled her into his side as the group started walking again. Jo slid her arms around his waist, leaning into him. They went along in comfortable silence for a few moments before Jo spoke up, "you're really worried about him, aren't you?"

"Yeah," James admitted. He looked at Jo out of the corner of his eye. "You know what happened between them right?"

Jo nodded. "Yeah, Kendall told me when we were still going out." She tightened her grip on James's waist. "I haven't told anyone else." She rested her chin on James's stomach and tilted her head back to look up at him. "I know you're trying to help him…please keep an eye on him. You know how he can get…his tunnel vision is terrible when he's angry at someone."

"Yeah," James agreed. He chuckled. "I think I got it from him."

"You really look up to him don't you?"

"He's like my brother," James replied. "Well, not like, he _is _my brother and I'm going to stand by him whenever I can."

"Fine." Jo sighed again. She knew what happened when the Big Time Rush boys got an idea in their heads. It was next to impossible to get them to change their minds. "Just stay out of trouble, alright." She stood on her tip-toes and James leaned down, giving her a long kiss.

"I don't think I can promise that," he said truthfully when he pulled back. There was a mischievous smile on his face as he rested his forehead against hers.

"I know," Jo agreed. She smiled, turning her head and resting her cheek on him. "I said it for my own peace of mind."

James laughed.

* * *

**A/N: **Even more BTR characters (Gustavo, Kelly, Dak, and WayneWayne (as well as Dak's sister Lizzie)) appear in the next chapter. I didn't want to introduce them all in once chapter or else that would be a _looooot _of people to deal with in one chapter. Especially considering I need to balance it all with Mrs. Knight, Kevin, and Ronan because they're the three main-main characters of the story.

For those wondering (and may have always wondered) why I like to put James and Jo together in my stories and it's because we never would have known what they would have been like together if he had gotten a chance to talk to her in _BTLoveSong_. At some point she may have found him charming or cute and fallen for him instead of Kendall, who knows.

Chapters will get longer; as the story goes on I plan on rotating between Kevin, Katie, Mrs. Knight, Kendall, and Ronan's POVs but we'll see how that works out.

I hope you enjoyed the chapter and I'll update again soon.

Cheers,

-Riles


	4. Some Things Never Change, Some Things Do

**.:Chapter Four:.**

* * *

"KELLY?! Have you seen my car keys?"

Gustavo Rocque rooted around on his hands and knees, patting his hand on the carpet under his desk. When he didn't find the keys to his convertible there, he opened up a desk drawer and started to dig around in there. Papers, bank notes, bills, and ruined stress balls looked back at him. With a cry of frustration, he pushed the drawer back into the desk with more force than necessary.

"Why would _I _have seen your keys?" Kelly Wainright shot back, her voice traveling from down the hall. The clacking of her heels sounded along with her voice seconds before she turned the corner and over the threshold of his office. She was looking at her PDA and only glanced up when Gustavo made a sound of annoyance, flopping back into his chair. "In fact, I thought you have your convertible impounded because you parked in a fire lane."

"How was I supposed to know it was a fire lane?" Gustavo threw his hands into the air. "There was a big truck in the way and I was in a hurry!"

"God forbid Rocque Records actually burns down because you were in a hurry," Kelly replied.

"And it wasn't _impounded," _Gustavo continued. "The police merely parked it in a different spot."

"And wouldn't give it back until you paid them."

"Details, Kelly, are made to be overlooked."

Kelly rolled her eyes and gracefully lowered herself into the seat across from the desk from her partner. She was used to his antics at this point, but on the other hand, she was still aware that when they were working together, more often than not, it was like she was babysitting him.

"Anyway, are you ready to start talking marketing?" Kelly asked. She crossed her slicked legs. "I mean, we have to promote the boys' summer tour if it's going to be their last one."

Gustavo held up a hand, causing Kelly to trail off her thought. "It's not going to be their last tour," he denied. "They're going to come to their sense and realize that Big Time Rush will never die and that they need to get over it!" Kelly smiled as Gustavo sat back in his seat, crossing his arms. A smug smile slid onto his face. "Besides, we have to wait for Ronan, don't we?"

"Relax, I'm right here," Ronan said as he walked into the room. He took the other seat that was situated beside Kelly. He sat down, slouching a little so that he had enough space to cross his legs. His eyes shifted for a moment. "So where's Kacy, I figured she would be here too."

"She already had pans for the day," Kelly replied. "And this is just an idea of things that we're going to bring to the marketing team when we get closer to when the tour is going to start."

Ronan nodded.

Gustavo, on the other hand, stared hard at Ronan. Though he wouldn't actually admit it out loud, he would say that Kelly and Ronan were his best friends. They always managed to deal with his yelling and put downs and shot it right back at him. Kelly was his right hand man, able to know what it was he wanted and needed whenever the thought crossed his mind. She managed his finances—which had blown through the roof ever since Big Time Rush had come into their lives, when they weren't breaking things—and made sure everyone was happy. Ronan was like his dogs in some ways, they had known each other a long time and he got on Gustavo's nerves just as easily as Gustavo got on his.

And while he enjoyed Ronan's pain from time to time, it was strange to see how subdued he was now, compared to his usual outgoing nature.

"What's the matter?" Gustavo barked at him.

Ronan's green eyes shifted towards him. "What makes you think something's wrong?"

"The fact you're not bugging me, for one," Gustavo replied. He sat up in his seat, pressing his fingertips together. "Now, are you going to tell us what it is or are we going to have to drag it out of you?"

"I wouldn't take that lightly," Kelly advised Ronan, placing her hand on his forearm. "I've seen him do just about the same if not worse to a bunch of little kids when he was supposed to be babysitting." She gave Gustavo a side-eye. "And we all know that didn't end well."

"They were bugging me," Gustavo defended himself. "Always whining and complaining; wanting this and that. Those little brats wouldn't know how to hold a grudge if it weren't for me."

"They're your niece and nephew," Kelly reminded him.

"And my sister better be glad that I toughened them up when I did."

Ronan laughed quietly. Sitting up, he rubbed his forehead, the smile slowly disappearing from his face. "If you can scare kids that badly, d'you think that you can do that to grown men?" He waved a hand. "I mean, you already scare me, but I'm talking about giving a verbal warning." Gustavo raised an eyebrow. "Kacy and I broke up," he explained.

"Really?" Kelly exchanged a glance with Gustavo. "Why?"

"Honestly?" Ronan thought for a long moment. "It's because of Kevin being back. It's good for Kendall and Katie to have their father back around…to try and have things work for them. But…Kace is still hesitant about him being back in her life and she was starting to get stressed. It wasn't helping that he is acting like nothing had changed between the two of them and that things are OK." He waved a hand. "It caused a strain and we decided to cool it for a while."

"I knew it!" Gustavo said so loudly it made Ronan and Kelly jump. "I _knew _it! I knew _it!_" He pointed at Ronan. "I told you that Kevin being back wasn't going to help anyone! I was the one that said that the man was up to no good. Ever since he wanted to play that hockey game against Kendall and try to get back in his good graces…I knew there was something fishy about that guy." He drummed his hands on the top of his desk. "So, what? Is he finally going away? Is she gonna do something about it?"

"It's a difficult thing to deal with. I mean, on one hand she believes that his intentions with Kendall and Katie are real, but with their own relationship she's not so sure."

"That's terrible," Kelly sympathized. "It's no wonder she doesn't really want to talk today. Retail therapy helps wonders." She slowly turned back to Gustavo and gave him a winning smile. "What do you think I do every time I have to deal with your antics?"

"Go to the spa," Gustavo swiftly replied. "You say you need a massage each time you leave work every day and I gotta say it doesn't work. You're more high strung than usual."

Kelly glared at him.

"Now that we have that out of the way, can we _please _get started on this marketing stuff?" Ronan asked. He flipped open the manila folder that rested in his lap. "I'm only doing this as a favor and I have my own band to work with you know."

"Ah, you're going to see them when you go home, we need to deal with this now," Gustavo insisted. Ronan glared at him. "Fine, but don't ever say that I don't offer to help you with anything."

"You don't," Kelly and Ronan harmonized.

"Whatever."

* * *

"So this is what you're going to do," Kendall said to Katie, slowly closing the door to hers and her mother's bedroom behind him. Katie turned from her vanity mirror, listening intently, watching as her big brother moved across the room in two quick steps and kneeled down at her side. "You and Mom and Lizzie are going out to the mall right?"

"Right." Katie nodded.

"So, Mom's an attractive lady, we can all admit that," Kendall continued. He leaned closer to Katie, placing his hands on her shoulders and gently shaking her. "But what _you_ need to do is make her seem _un_attractive to any gut that tries to hit on her."

Katie slowly nodded. "But what if no one hits on her?"

"Trust me, someone will," Kendall said. He let go of his sister and stood up. "And while you're doing that, us guys are going to try and figure out what Dad has planned for with Mom, whether or not he's telling the truth about wanting to get remarried or whatever." He waved a dismissive hand.

Katie tried not to laugh out loud. It was fun to see her brother back in his 'planning mode'. He had so much trouble with girlfriends and girl drama and something going wrong with his music in the past couple of years that he hadn't really had time to come up with many plans and schemes for whatever the problem was. He had grown up a bit, but she still missed this silly side of her brother, though he had learned when to play the part.

"Do I need a tree hat too?" She asked sarcastically, getting up from her seat. "What about your old camouflage paintballing gear? Do I need that too?"

Kendall pondered the thought, even going as far as to rub his chin. "No, we're going to save that for an emergency." He then held up his hand. "Do you think you can do it soldier?"

Katie did a mock salute. "You can count on me." She brought up her hand and the two did their own handshake. She and Kendall left her room as the front door to their crib opened and WayneWayne Dooley and Dak and Lizzie Zevon walked inside.

"Finally!" Carlos leapt up from the couch and grabbed onto Dak's and WayneWayne's arms, dragging them inside. "Geez, what took you so long?"

"Dak drives like an old lady, _that's _what took so long," Lizzie replied, tossing her blonde hair over here shoulders. She turned to Katie, rolling her eyes. "It took us more than twenty minutes to even get close to the exit."

"I'd rather be safe than sorry," Dak defended himself.

"Yeah, and I'd rather get somewhere on time," WayneWayne shot back.

"And I'd rather get there in one piece than _dead_, Lizzie!" Dak then turned on his sister, who looked back at him innocently. "If you let her drive, you can basically set your watch to how she's either going to hurt herself or get into a car accident."

"Whatever." Kendall whipped two tree hats out from the back of his jeans, where the brims had been tucked into. "Put these on and let's go!" He led Dak, WayneWayne, James, Logan, and Carlos out of the apartment, closing the door behind them.

"What's that all about?" Lizzie giggled, turning back to her best friend.

Katie crossed her arms over her chest. "Long story short, my Dad wants to get back together with my Mom and now that Mom and Ronan broke up, we're going to try everything we can to make sure that it doesn't happen." Katie gestured towards the door. "The guys are going to be watching the Palm Woods to make sure no good looking men around Mom's age come in."

"And they need the tree hats for that?" Lizzie asked.

"Anything to have them blend in," Katie said. She turned and walked across the apartment, sitting down on the orange couch. Lizzie followed and sat beside her. "I'm just waiting for Mom, she'll be ready soon. So if you want to help us, then you can help me when we're at the mall." Katie looked over her shoulder and lowered her voice. "If there's anyone that looks like they're hitting on my Mom, we need to make her seem like she's unattainable."

"Got it." Lizzie gave a thumbs up. She then looked concerned. "I didn't even know they broke up. Noah never said anything."

"All of us only just found out a couple of days ago," Katie explained. "And, as usual, we're normally the last ones to find things like this out anyway." She pointed to herself. "Or, I am, anyway. So don't feel that you're out of the loop. Ronan may be taking it harder than any of the rest of us."

Lizzie nodded. "So what's so bad about him wanting to get back together with her?" She asked after a minute. "I mean, apart from the whole abuse thing. If you guys were able to, sort of, bond with him lately nothing's happened for a while…"

Katie was silent for a long time. What was wrong with it? What _wasn't _wrong with it? The fact she still didn't one hundred percent trust her father was a big indicator of how bad things would be. In fact, she wasn't even sure how she was ever supposed to feel. She didn't know him other than being the man her mother was married to, especially considering she was too young to ever remember him being around.

She remembered hearing her parents fight a few times. She remembered Kendall allowing her to sleep in his bed, she remembered him singing her to sleep, and that was all she knew. She didn't know what he was like when he was completely relaxed, she didn't know the sorts of things he was into—other than hockey—she didn't know his hobbies, his dreams and aspirations, his favorite color, favorite number or favorite food. Everything that someone would have been able to rattle off about their parents in a matter of seconds, she would be left guessing.

"It's just bad, OK," she finally replied.

"What's so bad?" Mrs. Knight walked into the apartment, hooking her purse up over her shoulder.

Katie and Lizzie got to their feet and went over to the older woman. "Nothing, Mom," Katie replied brightly. "Just talking about the sales and stuff that we're going to miss if we don't leave now." Mrs. Knight gave her a confused expression and Lizzie, standing beside her, nodded cheerfully.

"OK…" Mrs. Knight continued to look at Katie for a long moment. "Let's get going then." She turned on her heel and walked out of the doorway of the apartment and headed towards the elevator. Lizzie and Katie followed after Katie locked the door to the apartment and got into the elevator. They rode it down to the lobby and got out.

As soon as they did, Katie stopped walking and turned to glance at the potted plants that lined the corner of the lobby. She could have sworn she saw something wiggling out of the corner of her eye. But as she continued to stare, nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary, but still.

"Kevin! What are you doing here?!"

At the sound of her mother's started voice, Katie turned away from the plants and stared when she spotted her father standing at the front desk, talking to Bitters. Having heard his ex-wife's voice, he turned to her with a warm, albeit nervous, smile. "Hey Jen," he replied then paused. "Or do you still go by your middle name?"

"Either," Mrs. Knight replied airily. "It depends on the person."

"Right," Kevin agreed.

"Dad!" Katie grabbed onto Lizzie's arm and pulled her forward. She forced a smile on her face. "You remember Lizzie Zevon, right?" She pushed Lizzie forward. "She's been out to lunch with us a few times."

"I remember," Kevin replied. He smiled at her. "The dancer and my daughter's best friend, how could I forget?" Lizzie smiled and nodded again. "Am I correct in assuming that you three are headed off to the mall?"

"You bet!" Lizzie agreed. "I practically live there."

Kevin laughed. "I remember Katie saying that, that's why I assumed."

Mrs. Knight made a sound of exasperation. "Kevin, what are you doing here?" she asked again.

Kevin's face then turned serious. He motioned to Bitters, who was still standing at the computer behind the desk. His beady eyes shifted back and forth between the man and woman, his lips slightly curling up. Nothing was more entertaining to him than to watch people's relationships explode in front of his face. He had watched with great interest the many times one of the Big Time Rush boys did something wrong with their girlfriends.

Heck, I was why he had started that Palm Woods tour last year. Which reminded him, that he needed to sell tickets for the new tour.

"I was hoping I could talk to you," Kevin replied. He rubbed the back of his neck. "I mean, there are just some things that I think we need to discuss." He took a deep breath and reached into his back pocket, producing a white envelope. "Like this." He held it out to her.

Mrs. Knight looked at it curiously before slowly extending her hand and taking the envelope. Bowing her head, she started to open the envelope, only stopping at a whizzing sound that blew by them. Katie and Lizzie exchanged a glance. They heard it too.

Then there was another whizzing sound, but this time there was a loud 'smack' that accompanied it. Katie's eyes immediately moved over to the Palm Woods pool, had someone just done a belly flop? Her hazel eye scanned the pool, there were people playing volleyball, but no one wincing in pain.

Katie turned back to Lizzie and shrugged. "What was that?" she whispered.

"I don't know," Lizzie whispered back.

Katie turned her attention back to her mother and watched as she pulled something out of the envelope and her eyes widened. She gaped up at Kevin in shock, his eyes trained on hers. "Kevin…this is all of the money you owe me for child support," she said.

"I know."

Katie's eyes widened as she looked up at her father. He continued to watch his ex-wife intently. There was an air of confidence about him that Katie suddenly realized that she and Kendall had inherited from him. When it came to things she knew about—mostly online Poker and extorting people of their money—Katie was hit with an immense amount of confidence that things were going to go her way. It rested on a borderline of arrogance and she could see a hint of that in Kevin's face.

_What else have I gotten from him? _Katie couldn't help but allow her eyes to fun over Kevin's face. He was almost the spitting image of Kendall, though his blonde hair had turned a darker brown than her brothers had become. His eyes, eyebrows, and nose were what Kendall definitely had gotten from him. Maybe his mouth was like hers? She never paid that close attention to her own mouth before. Maybe it was the way he carried himself, the way he moved his hands? She didn't know and was suddenly struck with the feeling of wanting to know. She knew there was a lot she had gotten from her mother, but she had been around her long enough to fully understand her.

Katie looked away. _Why now? Why were all of these thoughts coming now?_ Why hadn't they been there before? What was it that had kept her from thinking about it? Maybe the emptiness and anger she felt for a long time. Maybe knowing it was her brother that had to, basically, give up his childhood to take are of her whenever she was working at the diner. Or how he had to take his first job when he was thirteen and willingly gave up half his paycheck for them.

There was another whizzing and smacking sound.

"You missed!" She could hear Dak's hushed voice from a plant behind her. "How could you have missed, he was right there!"

"Your big head got in the way," WayneWayne shot back. "What's your excuse?"

"Would you guys be quiet?" Logan's voice then came, a bit louder than Dak's and WayneWayne's had been. "I need total concentration." There was another whizzing sound and this time the smacking was that much closer as it had hit Bitters' computer screen, the next one smacking him in the face.

Mrs. Knight gasped, Kevin smiled, and Lizzie moved her hands up to cover her mouth and Katie watched as Bitters brought his hands up to wipe yolk and bits of egg shell off his face. "Who's throwing eggs in my lobby?!" He shouted. He continued to wipe off his face before turning to his computer screen. "Someone's gonna pay for the Palm Woods computer system too!"

Turning on his heel, he stormed back into his office, muttering something about 'teenagers', 'ulcers', 'heart attacks', and 'early retirement' under his breath as he went.

Kevin leaned over and looked at the egg as it dripped down the computer screen. "What kind of a place is this?" He asked, half joking half sounding serious. "I don't think that things were this bad when we were back in Minnesota."

"Some things never change, I guess," Mrs. Knight replied. She replaced the check into the envelope and placed it in her purse.

"But some things do," Kevin contradicted, looking meaningfully at her.

_Barf. _Katie grabbed onto Lizzie's arm and dragged her over to the potted plants. She reached out and grabbed onto a branch, pulling hard enough so that James had to lean forward so that he wouldn't fall over. "Ow! Katie! Watch the hair! It's delicate!" Logan, Carlos, Kendall, Dak, and WayneWayne came out from behind their plants as well; all armed with cartons of eggs, sling shots, and wearing camouflage tree hats.

"Eggs?" Katie planted her hands on her hips. "Your master plan was to hit them with wayward eggs?" She reached out, smacking Kendall upside the head. "That's the _dumbest _thing you've ever come up with!"

"Not to mention that it could have ruined my outfit," Lizzie added. She stuck out her white boot clad foot. "I spent all day picking it out." Katie and Dak both rolled their eyes.

"The eggs were Carlos's idea," Kendall defended himself, pointing over to the shortest member of Big Time Rush. He had his helmet on, and the tree hat jammed overtop of it.

"It's a good idea!" Carlos looked down at his own carton that was now missing half of the eggs. "If he didn't move so much. It's no wonder he's so good at hockey, he's so fat!" Logan frowned and reached over. He picked up an egg and smushed it into Carlos's face, to get him to shut up.

"OK, so maybe the eggs weren't the best idea," James agreed. He lifted a finger, grinning. "But, I _totally _got Bitters in the face. He should be thanking me. Eggs are a good home remedy to clear skin."

"That explains why you always smell," Carlos muttered. Now James smacked him in the face with an egg.

"Everybody chill," Kendall said, holding out his arms so that his body resembled a 'T'. He looked at everyone before speaking again. "So this was just a minor setback. Besides, it's not like Mom is going to listen to what Dad has to say."

"Kendall," Lizzie said gently. "He gave her all of the child support he hasn't paid in years."

"In one big, fat check, too," Katie agreed.

Kendall blinked, slowly taking in a deep breath. While on the outside he appeared calm, cool, and collected, something he was famous for, she could see her brother white-knuckling the slingshot that was in his hand. "Hockey pucks."

"Don't worry, Kendall," Logan said. He reached out and patted Kendall on the shoulder. "We're just going to have to go to plan B."

"Which is?" Katie pressed.

"We'll let you know as soon as we think of it," Kendall replied.

Katie knew, from those words alone, that it was bound to have something to do with the Jacksons. If there was one thing she knew for sure, plans always seemed to work when both Big Time Rush and the DarkElements were involved, and that there was more chaos involved when they were all together. Who knew what outcome was going to come from this one.

Kendall placed a hand on Katie's shoulder and tilted his head back towards their mother. "Go have fun at the mall, Baby Sister. I'll see you later."

Katie glanced at him. "Are you sure you're going to be OK, Big Brother?"

Kendall smiled. "I'll be fine."

Katie nodded and looped her arm through Lizzie's and went back to Mrs. Knight who hurriedly finished her conversation with Kevin, flashed a smile to the girls, and walked out to the car. She looked over at Kevin, who continued to stand in the lobby for a few moments, before answering his cell phone and walking out of the lobby and to the other side of the parking lot to his own car.

There was one thing she knew for sure she had gotten from her father; she was a better liar than her brother and mother.

* * *

**A/N: **If you don't know what handshake I'm talking about that Kendall and Katie do, it's because it was only seen once in BTBreak, when Katie was helping expose Jo as not having a boyfriend.

So I wanted to balance this chapter with silly and serious and that's and I hope I pulled it off well, as well as bringing in Katie's views on her father, especially considering it's different from Kendall's. Katie really didn't know Kevin at all, so she is, in a way, the one that has the most to lose, a father she never had before.

Hmm, I might change the plot to this story slightly, you'll know by the next chapter. It really depends on how it would eventually work out in the long run as I think about it. Considering it's the second genre of the story, the romance aspect starts with the next chapter, I just wanted to set up some parts of the plot of the story, as well as bring in all of the characters, first.

I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter and I'll update again soon.

Cheers,

-Riles


	5. Maybe That Was Our Problem

**.:Chapter Five:.**

* * *

Kevin shifted his weight as he turned his skates to the side, sending a wave of slush into the glass partition of the ice rink. After coming to a stop, he spun his hockey stick in his hands before walking to the side of the rink and stepping out to the players' bench. He retrieved his bag and took of his jersey, pads, and skates before heading into the locker room to take a shower.

He allowed the warm water to soothe his burning muscles, his mind wandering to his family. He had been allowed back into their lives to try and start up a relationship with his kids again, he was starting to become at least friendly with his ex-wife, who may as well still be his wife considering they were only separated, and he had finally given them the money for child support he hadn't given before. What else was it going to take to have them understand that he really _was _trying to have things go back to normal?

OK, maybe mentioning to Kendall and Katie that he thought about getting back together with Kacy wasn't a good idea. How was he supposed to know they would be so against it? They didn't have to say anything for him to know, he could see it in their faces. He could tell from the sudden silence that had permeated them the whole way home. They weren't happy with the idea and he knew it was going to take a long time for them to trust him…to believe he wouldn't ever raise a hand to them again.

He saw that apprehension each and every time Kendall was around him. At first he wouldn't stand too close, wary of all of the sudden hand movements he would make, but as time went on he would start to relax a bit and they would even start to enjoy each other's company. It would cycle all over again the next time they would hang out. He could see how worried his ex-wife was about it as well, her eyes watching his every move each time he was around her, her words clipped with apprehension, the unresolved tension of things they hadn't ever been able to say to each other.

It was enough to keep him up at night and it had since he had left the first time.

It was his own fault; he couldn't get over his bitterness and that other woman had stroked his ego and he fell for it. The guilt caused him to start drinking a little; his temper got out of control….he could admit it now. It was his own fault. He could admit that now.

Now if only they would stay around him long enough so that he could admit it to them.

Turning off the water, Kevin grabbed his towel and dried off. He changed into his work clothes, left the ice rink and got into his car, heading to the office. One he arrived; he took his briefcase from the car and went inside.

"Good morning, Mr. Knight," his assistant, Nadine, said, appearing at his side. "We have a new potential client coming in to see you today for a twelve o'clock lunch meeting. The case of the car accident from last week; it's being moved to trial because the woman in the car is suing for emotional trauma."

Kevin snorted slightly. "She was the one that…" he shook his head. "Never mind, I'm not even going to question that, it won't be hard to win this one." He took the folder she handed him and tucked it under his arm. "Do I have any other meetings today?"

"Mr. Farnsworth wants to meet up with you sometime this week to talk about the future of the firm," Nadine continued. They left the lobby, zigzagging through hallways at a power walk. "Barnes and Buchanan are going to be in the meeting as well."

"OK."

"Other than that there are those e-mails that you have to catch up on, a fiscal meeting that I'm sure no one wants to go to, as well as a quick briefing over the cases from last month and the outcomes of those cases," Nadine said. They reached his office and she went over to the desk that resided outside it, sitting down. "I'll hold your calls if that would make work more efficient for you."

"Thanks, Nadine," Kevin said. "I'll let you know if I need anything else."

"Please do, sir."

Kevin unlocked the door to his office and went inside, flipping on the lights as he did so. His view of Los Angeles was one that many would be jealous of, though he didn't find himself too enamored with it himself. The city was never something he particularly enjoyed, though having lived in St. Paul—one half of the twin cities—for so long he had gotten the best of both worlds. Living in and commuting to the city day after day, going hunting or up the mountains to snowboard when he got too tired of the constant cars, horns, and terrible drivers.

He preferred being away from it all so it was a bit of a slap to the face when he first learned that he had been transferred out to LA to start working there. It had only been a couple years after he had left his family and the next thing he knew, his son's face was being plastered all over the TV with his new band. He was shell shocked when he saw the first news article then angry, wondering why Kacy had never told him that they were moving out to LA. The anger had faded quickly as he understood that, in a way, he didn't deserve to know that about them anymore.

So he closely followed his career as they moved up in the music world and he hadn't been prouder.

Turning from the window, Kevin sat down at his desk and booted up his computer to get started on the e-mails that were inevitably blasting through his mailbox at high speeds. Every time he left for the weekend he came back with some sort of crisis he had to deal with. He enjoyed his work, he enjoyed the fast paced atmosphere, it was the things he was supposed to fix that others could that irritated him.

As his computer came up from its cold sleep, Kevin turned and scanned the pictures on his desk. They were old ones, those that many would have updated but he didn't have that luxury. Two of which were of him holding onto his son and daughter when they had been born, another of Kendall and Katie when they were still very young, having just eaten a bunch of cake—which was evident from the blue streaks on their faces—and one of him and Mrs. Knight a couple months after they first started dating.

He remembered that day fondly. He and his hockey teammates had just gotten out of practice at the university and they had gone to the diner to hang out and get some food. Kevin had noticed her as soon as he stepped into the restaurant; she was working a nearby table, cleaning it off so the rest of the team to sit down. Then she had come back and passed out the menus, giving them a bright smile as they went.

Now, what she would say, if asked about it, "The other boys on the team had all been so rowdy and I was starting to get upset. Kevin came over and personally apologized for his team."

What she didn't know was that Kevin had orchestrated the whole thing. He watched as Jennifer—that's what her nametag said—walked off to take someone else's order before leaning into his teammates, lowering his voice. "Hey, what do you think about her?" He nodded to Jennifer.

The Center, Vinnie Kostas, looked over his shoulder at Jennifer, as did the rest of the table. He turned back to Kevin and shrugged. "She's easy on the eyes. Why?" He smiled. "Are you into her?"

"Yeah," Kevin agreed. "She's in some of my classes…I didn't know she worked here." He cleared his throat and lifted his menu, pretending to look at it. He kept one eye on the menu, the other on the waitress, feeling something stir in his gut when she smiled again, tucking a strand of auburn hair behind his ear. "I have a plan." Still holding his menu close to his face he instructed the other guys to be as obnoxious as they could, without getting them kicked out of the diner, and he would handle the rest.

The plan had gone off without a hitch. There was a bit of loud laughter here and there, some horseplay, some napkins getting knocked around, drinks getting knocked over, and the whole while he could see frustration in Jennifer's face, though she did her best to hide it from her patrons. When it was time for them to leave, Kevin left a generous tip on the table before making his way over to her as she stood at the cash register, putting in the money from the bill.

"May I help you?" Her tone was frosty as he leaned against the counter.

"Yes, I wanted to apologize for my teammates," Kevin said. "I know they were being obnoxious and I wanted to comment you for putting up with them for as long as you have."

Jennifer raised an eyebrow. "'Commend'," she repeated. "That's a big word. You must mean it then."

Kevin placed a hand over his heart. "I really am sorry for them. It wasn't fair to you. Especially how I sat back and watched it all happen. Being the captain of the team, I should have said something sooner. So, for that, I apologize." He leaned in towards her. "Let me make it up to you." Jennifer looked startled for a moment. "Why don't you let me take you out this weekend?"

Jennifer's started expression melted into a startled laugh. "You don't even know me."

"I know your name is Jennifer."

"Kacy."

"Your nametag says Jennifer."

"It's my first name," she explained. "I sometimes go by my middle name, Kacy."

Kevin smiled and nodded. "Kacy. Then, it's good to meet you, Kacy." He held his hand out towards her. "I'm Kevin. It's nice to meet you."

"Thanks." She laughed again. "But I know who you are." Kevin looked amused. "You're the captain of the hockey team who's studying law. There aren't many people at the university that do that." She reached out and shook his hand with a grip that was much tighter than he anticipated. "It's nice to meet you, too."

"So, how about going out this weekend?" Kevin pressed.

She hesitated. "I don't know…"

"I'll be a perfectly gentleman, I promise." He crossed his heart. "_And _I'll make sure that none of those guys comes with." He pointed over his shoulder, out the window, to the group of guys that were waiting around for their captain so they could leave.

Kacy laughed. She took a deep breath. "Sure," she finally agreed. "I'll meet you at the dining hall and we can go from there." She gently bobbed her head. "Mutual territory and everything." Kevin and everyone else knew that campus was split between the hockey and football teams, each one getting a chance per semester to 'capture' some of the other team's territory. It was something the students got a lot of entertainment out of.

"Sounds good to me," Kevin said. He grinned. "I'll see you then."

He waved and left the diner, going back to the athletic dorm building with his teammates. The rest of that week, Kevin couldn't help but think about her. When they weren't in class together he wondered what she was doing and when they _were _in class together he tried his hardest to catch her eye. Whenever he did, she would smile and look away again, sending the butterflies in his stomach into a tizzy.

Finally, the date of their date arrived and he met her out front of the dining hall, directed her to his car, and drove up to the mountains to take her on an impromptu fishing trip. He had expected to teach her how to hold the pole and to bait the hook and clean the fish whenever they caught one. But she held her own, and had even impressed him with how quickly she caught a fish.

"I got one!" She cried after about five minutes of their lures bobbing in the water, making small chit-chat as they got to know each other.

"What?" Kevin turned to look at her. "No, you don't!"

"Yes, I do!" Removing a hand from the pole, she pointed at the water, where the lure was rapidly bobbing in and out of the water. She let out a shriek as she pulled hard on the rod and the fish flew into the water, splashing water as it went. When it landed, the fish tried its hardest to swim away, causing Kacy to dig her heels into the sand (thankfully they had taken off their shoes first) and pulled as hard as she could.

The fish came flying out of the water and landed on the sand beside them. Kevin quickly finished it off and placed it in a bucket that was lying in-between them. "Wow that was fast."

"I grew up in Virginia," Kacy explained as she went to another bucket and picked up a worm to bait her hook with. "So my parents and I went fishing a lot."

"Well let's see how you do against a true Minnesota man," Kevin said. "First one to catch five fish gives the other one a foot massage." He lifted his foot from the sand and wiggled his toes. "And let me tell you, not even my mother will go near my feet."

"You're on."

And the rest of the date went like that. They had become so close with each other so quickly that they had ended up making a schedule around their school work, his practices and games, and her job to be able to have some one-on-one time. Not to say they didn't spend time by themselves, but they did prefer being with each other. It was when they had gone hiking that the picture on his desk had been taken. They found an elderly couple coming down the path and he asked them to take a picture.

She had leaned into his side, wrapping her arms tightly around his waist while he put his around her shoulders, holding onto her tightly.

And it was a picture that still made him smile years later.

Picking it up, Kevin looked it over, gently running his thumb over the glass that protected the picture from fingerprints. _Maybe that was our problem, _Kevin thought. _Maybe we had gotten to know each other so quickly…we spent so much time together that we got too comfortable. _

His computer finally booted up and he put the picture back on the desk. He opened his e-mail and started to open the fifty or so e-mails that had been resting in his inbox. Clicking the first one, he leaned forward in his chair and started to read.

One of the few things he could say he really enjoyed about his job was that it brought him closer to his family—literally and figuratively—and it gave him a chance to get so absorbed in his work that he was able to get away from his problems.

Even if it was only for a little while.

* * *

"Now, are you _sure _that this will get to her today?" Sydney asked the delivery man that stood in the doorway to the office.

The delivery man rolled his eyes as he looked down at the young Australian boy. "Yes!" He snapped. "It'll get there today. Now, could I get the message and go?" He then peered down at Sydney, who stared back at him. "What does a nine year old boy need to send flowers for?"

"I'm twelve," Sydney replied swiftly. "And that's none of your business." He crossed his arms over his chest, giving the man a critical sweep of his body. "And why are _you_ still delivering flowers? You're, what, almost forty, mate?" His dimple appeared in his cheek. "Are you trying to compensate for something? Lost love? Lack of girlfriend?" His smile then turned sinister. "Being in the closet?"

The delivery man glared at Sydney and said through gritted teeth, "Two minutes!"

Twisting to the side, Sydney called over his shoulder to his siblings. "He's only going to be here for two more minutes, hurry up!"

"Hold on!" Patrick hollered back. He was sitting at Ronan's desk, Riley, Rhuben, and Noah all crowded around him, waiting as he painstakingly wrote a note out on the memo pad that came with the flowers brought to the office. "Geez, you guys were the ones that told me to write this like Mama Knight, it's harder than you think."

"Well, we figured because you're able to imitate people's voices so well, you should be able to imitate handwriting," Rhuben reminded him.

Patrick pointed towards Riley with his pen. "But she can forge signatures!"

"Yeah, _signatures," _Riley repeated. "I can't completely copy someone's handwriting." She shrugged. "Not well anyway." She reached out and placed a hand on the back of Patrick's head, pushing it back down towards the paper. "Keep writing."

Grumbling, Patrick continued to write. When he was finished, he handed it over to Noah, who walked it to the delivery many, who seemed to now be in a staring contest with Sydney. "Here, mate." Noah started to hand it over, and then stopped when he noticed something in the writing. "Hang on a tick; I don't think that's how you spell 'iridescent'.

"Just give it to me!" The delivery man snapped, taking the note and shoving it into the bouquet of flowers that was sitting by the door.

"Ha!" Sydney punched the air with his fists before pointing at the delivery man. "You blinked, you lose."

"Ahh, shut up." The delivery man turned to the Jacksons and sneered. "I'll have this to her today. And if you ever want to use our company to deliver roses again, feel free, just make sure it's a day when I'm not working."

"You got it," Sydney replied with a sweet smile.

The delivery man pointed at Sydney and gave a menacing glare before leaving the office, muttering something about a 'demon spawn'. Sydney continued to peer out the door as Riley changed places with Patrick in Ronan's chair and turned to the computer. "Alright, now we just need to make dinner reservations." She started to type on the computer. "What restaurant did they like to go to a lot?"

"Urasawa," Rhuben instructed. She leaned forward and pointed at the bookmark in the toolbar. "That one." The Jacksons leaned forward and glanced at the website. "Dang, this place is expensive."

"It's no wonder that one woman liked to go out with him a lot," Noah added.

"The gold digger?" Patrick piped up.

"No, the one with the freakishly big ears," Sydney called from the doorway. "The one that always wanted earrings." He turned back to the door and peered out, eyes widening when he spotted Ronan coming up the hallway, looking over a packet of paper in his hands. "He's coming!"

"Darn it," Riley said, closing he web browser. "I didn't get to make the reservations."

"Well, we're going to have a reservation for our _deaths _if you don't get up," Noah said. After ensuring that the computer was put back in its original position, the Jacksons raced to the front of the desk, leaning against it to hide the computer.

Once Ronan stepped into the room, he stopped in his tracks, seeing five of his six kids all beaming at him, teeth showing. "What are you doing?"

"Nothing," they replied in unison.

"And why are you smiling at me like that?"

Patrick shrugged. "Can't we smile when we see you?"

Ronan tossed the folder aside. "Not when it's as creepy as that," he remarked. "Whenever you all smile like that you're up to something." His eyes moved over the five similarly structured faces before he realized that they were hiding his computer. "You know you're not supposed to use my computer without my permission."

"Why?" Rhuben shot back, raising an eyebrow. "Are you hiding something?" Her eyes then narrowed as the seconds passed.

Ronan sighed heavily, crossing his arms. "Look, I know you guys are upset that I didn't tell you that Kacy and I broke up when we did. _And _I know you're upset that I didn't tell you the reason why, at first, because we have that 'no secrets policy', but it was something that I needed to wrap my head around before I could talk about it." He gestured towards them. "Much like you guys do."

"Well, yeah, but we're young and stupid," Patrick said.

"Speak for yourself," Noah and Sydney harmonized.

Ronan chuckled. "Anyway, we're done for the day. So let's get back home and just chill out or you can go to the Palm Woods or whatever." He ran his hands over his face, missing Patrick check the computer one last time, before his kids left the office. He grabbed his backpack, filled with files and information he could work on at home, and followed them out, locking the door to his office behind them.

They had only made it to the lobby of his record company before he spotted Mrs. Knight heading his way, holding onto a bouquet of flowers. "Kace," he greeted her, surprised. "What are you doing here?" He glanced at the flowers, chuckling. "And where'd these come from?"

Sydney let out a muffled yelp which was immediately overpowered by shushes from his siblings.

Mrs. Knight moved the bouquet aside and regarded him with surprise. "What do you mean where'd they come from?" She gestured to the note that was poking out of the side on a plastic stick. "_You _sent them to me." She shook her head. "Actually, I was on my way in to talk to you about something when this delivery guy stopped me, held a picture up next to my face, shoved these flowers in my hands, charged me, and stormed out of the building."

Now Ronan's expression of surprise melted into confusion. "I never sent you flowers."

"It says here you did." Mrs. Knight shifted the flowers in her hand and took the note out, handing it to him.

Ronan took it and read it over. His eyebrows rose then he laughed for a moment. "I'll admit this looks like my handwriting, but I can guarantee this isn't mine," he said. "For one, I wouldn't use language as flowery as this, and two, I think I know how to spell iridescent." There was a sudden pumping sound and he looked up to see that Sydney had blasted open the front door to the record company and he, Noah, Patrick, Riley, and Rhuben had sprinted out of it as fast as they could. Turning back to Mrs. Knight, he nodded at the door. "Though, now I think I know where they came from. Look, I'm sorry about this, Kace, I guess they're taking it harder than…" he trailed off.

Mrs. Knight nodded and sighed. "Yeah, I know what you mean. Kendall and Katie aren't taking it well either," she said. Her right eyebrows lowered in a pensive expression. "Actually, I think there may be something else going on, but it wasn't easy for them either." She started to say "it wasn't easy for me,"but decided not to. _It wasn't easy for you? _She thought. _You were the one that broke up with him, like he'd believe that._ She tried hard not to think of the day they had broken up, Ronan had been blindsided by what she had said, but he handled it like a champ, agreeing with her and promising that he'd still be a friend to her if she ever needed to talk.

That they'd still be friends.

She had held onto that piece of hope with a bit of uncertainty, who was able to stay friends after breaking up? It never seemed to work. And yet, here she was, wanting to talk to him about the child support that Kevin had suddenly given her and she couldn't find the words to bring it up. Not after the way he heart had started to rapidly pound when she had seen his scrawling signature on the bottom of that very beautiful note.

"They're some beautiful flowers though," Ronan continued, breaking her out of her thoughts. "I don't think I've ever seen them be that nice," he joked.

Mrs. Knight laughed, tucking her hair behind her ear as she gazed at her friend. Was that a forced laugh? It didn't' seem like it was the sort of laugh she had gotten used to. Mentally, Mrs. Knight rolled her eyes. Great, now she was acting like a teenage girl in love again, analyzing everything around her. She looked at him again, he looked like he wanted to say something, but wasn't sure how to start either. _Come on, you can talk to him, _she thought. _This whole child support thing is huge…you'll explode. Just say it. _

She wanted to talk about it, she really did. But…things were too different now."I mean, I guess it's the thought that counts," Mrs. Knight agreed.

"Besides, if I _was _going to send you flowers,"—lifting a hand, Ronan gently flicked at a rose that stuck out of the bouquet—"they would have been bigger than that." He smiled at her. "You deserve that at least."

He left Mrs. Knight standing in the lobby of Blazing Phoenix, thinking about what he had just said.

* * *

**A/N: **The explanation of Kevin's and Mrs. Knight's first meeting each other was first introduced in _Memories and Melodies _but I expanded upon it here. (I'm sorry if the Jennifer/Kacy thing was confusing. But since her name is Jennifer and we prefer keeping the 'K' theme of the family to call her Kacy; we decided from a suggestion of a friend to make Kacy her middle name that she sometimes goes by).

Now that I've done a chapter with Kendall, Katie, and Kevin, the next one will be more about Mrs. Knight as well as BTR and their friends. I don't know if I'm going to follow that pattern or go off with the POV I think works with what I want to say at the time.

I'll update again soon.

Cheers,

-Riles


	6. Was Is It A Promise He Could Keep?

**.:Chapter Six:.**

* * *

Logan reached out and knocked on the apartment door, took a step back, and waited for someone to answer it. He let out a deep breath, running a hand through his hair, only straightening when he heard the sound of rapid footsteps heading in his direction. Why was he so nervous? He hadn't been this nervous since the time he had asked her out for the first time. Not only was he, in a way, meeting her father for the first time that day, but he hadn't gone out with a girl that had been as straightforward as her.

In fact, if he remembered correctly, she had basically asked herself out for him.

But that wasn't why he was nervous that day. They had to have a serious conversation he wasn't sure how to start. Especially when it was a conversation he knew Kendall wasn't going to have with her himself. If there was anything Logan hated more than anything else, it was being the bearer of bad news.

"I got it, Dad, it's just Logan," he could hear Camille say from the other side of the door then winced.

To say her father didn't like him was a bit of an understatement. The outward affection that Camille showed Logan made her father uncomfortable, especially considering how close the two of them were. Her mother was still in Connecticut, waiting for the best chance to move out there. As Camille had told him, she never saw the point of completely moving if her daughter didn't have a steady job. So Mr. Roberts took care of his only daughter and watched her like a hawk whenever the situation called for it and in his opinion, anything having to do with Logan called for it.

"I just want to say 'hi'," Mr. Roberts replied in a calm voice.

"Daddy, you saying 'hi' is just a way for you to turn him into a quivering mess," Camille's voice sounded again.

"You have to admit it's not that hard to do so."

"Daddy!" The door flung open and Camille turned to her boyfriend with a bright smile, pushing her hair behind her ears. "Hey, baby!" She walked forward, placed her hands on Logan's cheeks and gave him a kiss. "I was wondering when you were coming by." She looked at her watch. "I thought you said to be ready by noon."

"I did," Logan agreed. "I, uh, just had something I needed to take care of first."

He shifted his gaze away from Camille. Yeah, he had something he had to take care of alright, if trying to figuratively talk Kendall down from the ledge was 'something'. He had never seen his friend look so down before. Normally he was really good at hiding whatever it was that was on his mind, not wanting to bother anyone with his own problems. But when the door to their room closed and they were turning in for the night—if Kendall was staying at 2J—it was when he let his guard down to talk about what was on his mind.

It didn't take a genius to know that his father wanting to get back together with his mother was something that Kendall had wanted for a while, but now that it was something that could happen again, he was starting to panic. Was it what he _really _wanted or was it what his younger self had wanted? A sense of normalcy in a life that had completely fallen apart.

It was then Logan had asked if Kendall was still thinking about the times that his father had beaten him and if he was worried that he would then go on to beat his mother if they got back together. Kendall had denied it and then Logan changed the subject slightly, asking if it was that he was worried about everyone finding out about him having been beaten more than anything else. Once again, Kendall had denied it.

_He's getting better at keeping his thoughts to himself, _Logan thought before clearing his throat once more. "Anyway, we should get going or I'm going to be late. And if I'm late, Gustavo is actually going to kill me this time."

Camille chuckled. "I'm sure he can threaten you with that as much as he wants, but he knows you guys are what're keeping him hot right now." She reached over to the side and grabbed her keys to the apartment, shoving them into her purse. "Well, I'm ready to go, but my Dad wants to say 'hi' to you first." She stepped aside to allow Mr. Roberts to fill up the doorway.

Logan gulped slightly and took a step back. Though Mr. Roberts was nothing more than a banker he was still a father to a daughter and had a way of appearing more and more intimidating as the days went on. Flashing a smile, Logan held out his hand towards the man. "It's good to see you again, Mr. Roberts," he said.

"It's good to see you too, Logan," Mr. Roberts replied. He gave a tight-lipped smile, shaking Logan's hand. "I'm glad that you're taking care of my daughter and that you're making her happy."

Logan pulled his hand back. "I'm glad I'm making her happy, too," he said honestly. "I mean, I never thought I'd be the kind of guy that she'd want to go out with—"

"—and that's the kind of boy that you are," Mr. Roberts continued. "And that brings me to the point that I'd like to get to know you better."

"Dad," Camille whispered.

Logan's eyebrows twitched. _Get to know my better? What does that mean? _"Sir?" He replied uneasily.

"I mean, I've noticed that you can't ever seem to look me in the eye for longer than a few seconds, like you're scared of me or something," Mr. Roberts continued. "And that's the last thing that I would want. For my daughter to date someone that's afraid of her father. So I figured you could come over for dinner one day. So we can get to know each other better and so that I can see the kind of guy that Millie here is always telling me about."

"Dad, that's enough," Camille said. She took a step forward and slipped her hand over Logan's wrist. She stood up on her tiptoes and pressed a comforting kiss to the underside of his jaw. Her smooth hair slid over his shoulder, tickling his cheek, allowing the scent of her shampoo to envelope him. "He's really not as bad as you think, Logan. I promise. He just thinks it's funny to terrorize you."

"That too," Mr. Roberts agreed. "But I really do want to get to know you." He looked at his watch. "So why don't you come along to dinner with us tonight."

"I, uh…" Logan thought quickly. "I might not be able to make it. I've got photo shoots and interviews I'm doing today and I also have some rehearsing to do for our tour and that's, like, an all day thing."

"Don't worry about it, Daddy, we'll get together some other time." Camille tightened her grip on Logan's wrist. "I'll see you later. Love you." With a sharp tug, she pulled Logan away from the apartment and practically dragged him to the elevator. She didn't speak again until the doors were closed and they made their descent to the lobby. "I'm sorry about that, Logan," she apologized to him. "It's just that he was asking about your family and I was telling him about your mother and grandmother…" she shook her head. "I guess when I said I didn't know much about your father he got a little concerned."

His breath hitched in his throat. He knew what was coming, it had taken him this long without having to mention it and now it was going to blow up in his face. _Thanks a lot, Kendall. _The bitter thought had struck him before he could stop himself and the sudden surprise stemming from the malicious blame put on his best friend shocked him. How could he blame Kendall for something like this? It wasn't his fault that Kevin had decided to turn his life upside down even further. _Things had been going so great for them…they were starting to make their relationship work again, and then he had to drop that bomb…_

"Why?" Logan knew why.

It was the same reason why people sympathized with James and Kendall over their lack of fathers. As he was an only child his mother and grandmother had taken care of him for a long time. Longer than he could remember when his father was actually in the picture. It was the same thing each time; a boy that grows up without a father doesn't know what it means to be a man.

He's going to turn out to be some sort of damaged goods that wouldn't know how to treat other people right.

"He's just worried about me, Logan," Camille defended him. She laced her fingers through his as they walked to the Big Time Rush mobile. It was his day to have the car, though he was now starting to realize that if they were all going to go their separate ways that he needed to be get his own set of wheels. "You know that. He's been worried since I decided to make the movie out to LA to become an actress. And…he was the one that was there for me each and every time I got rejected before I finally got my by break."

"So what? Does he think that I'm just using you or something?" Logan tried his hardest to keep the bitterness out of his voice. But whenever the subject of father's came up, he couldn't help but get a little testy.

"Well, you're in a band that had hundreds of thousands of girls throwing themselves at you day after day," Camille pointed out. Logan smiled, detecting a bit of jealousy in her tone. He unlocked the doors to the Big Time Rush mobile and the two climbed inside. Logan pulled on his seatbelt and reached out to grab onto the keys in the ignition, but Camille's hand on his thigh stopped him in his tracks. "He just wants to be sure that you're the kind of guy that I don't have to worry about."

Logan smiled. "You don't have to worry; I only have eyes for you."

Camille smiled back. "You're only saying that because you know I'll destroy any girl that gets in my way."

"You're absolutely right." Logan leaned over and gently pressed his lips against Camille's. Camille took the initiative and leaned into him, not being restrained by seatbelt, and deepened the kiss. Logan's sense came alive, his surroundings completely fading away. Nothing else mattered to him at that moment than holding his girlfriend in his arms; not the inevitable conversation they had to have about him going back to Minnesota, not the status of their relationship when they left, not the dark cloud that loomed over their heads, not the tour, not her job, nothing. All that mattered was him and her in that moment.

Camille finally pulled back long enough so they could catch their breath. Logan kept his forehead pressed against hers, his eyes roving to look at each spot of her face, taking in the freckles on her cheeks and colorful specks in her eyes that couldn't otherwise be seen unless one was that close.

"Can I ask you something?" Camille reached a hand up and gently ran her nails around the shell of his ear, causing him to let out a quiet sigh of appreciation. "How come you never talk about your father?"

Logan's eyes squeezed tightly for a moment then he leaned back and studied her carefully. He should've known this conversation would come up eventually. Frankly, though, he expected the one about Kendall's father first. "He's in jail," he said simply. It wasn't even a story to him anymore. It was a matter of fact, a statistic. He and his family had become a statistic and it was the best way for him to look at things. "Drug trafficking. Heroin I believe."

Camille let out a light gasp, her lips parting slightly. "W-what?"

Logan let out a humorless laugh, running a hand through his hair. "Yeah, I thought it was a joke when Mom first told me. But then I realized, from what I remembered, it made sense. Besides, everyone in Texas always knew about it." He turned away. "They would give us strange looks; kids in my class would tease me, saying I was a crack baby. Stupid things like that."

Tilting her head so it rested on the seat, Camille regarded him with sympathy. Instead of it being fake sympathy, something that seemed to have been expected rather than natural, he could tell she was really hurting for him. "And that's why you moved to Minnesota?" She asked.

Logan nodded. "Yeah. Mom said she couldn't take the attention anymore. In my neighborhood, the outskirts of the city, everyone knows everyone else's business." He lifted his hands, waving them around slightly then dropped them back to his lap. "She was tired of being the topic of everyone's conversations and even as a real estate agent there were people who would look at her funny. She wanted a new start so we moved to Minnesota and met Kendall, James, and Carlos and…"

He didn't need to finish the story; she and the rest of the world knew how BTR got their beginning. However, there was something else he needed to say and he hoped Kendall wouldn't hate him for it. "At first, I didn't think we'd click. Carlos was such a wild child that seemed to feed off of Kendall's plans for getting in trouble, and James followed along with them. They had their own thing going on and I felt weird for jumping right into it. But then one day I heard Kendall's plan to get a substitute teacher to keep from giving us a test that was scheduled for that day, because he hadn't studied, and I told him how overly complicated his plan was."

Camille giggled. She knew all about Kendall's plans and how he would quickly come up with one whenever something went wrong or he felt the need to help a friend. She had used her acting expertise and endless stream of costumes to help them out on more than one occasion. So she was well versed in the ways that Kendall's plans could easily go wrong. "That sounds about right," she said.

"And I told him the easiest way to be able to do it was to confuse the teacher, to convince them that it was the wrong day for the test and that we had, actually, already taken it," Logan explained. "And after that worked, we had become best friends. They taught me how to play hockey, I helped them with their homework, and we just clicked I guess. I got to know them so well that they ended up becoming my brothers." Logan licked his lips and took a shuddery breath. "Which was why I had been so…angry and frustrated when I heard what had happened to Kendall."

Camille's eyebrows furrowed together. "What happened?"

"His father left," Logan said simply. "That's all we thought it was. We thought that he had up and left and James, Carlos, and I were mad at him because he had hurt our brother. But the thing was he hadn't just hurt him by leaving them. He…did something a lot worse." He ran a hand over his face, now looking away from Camille. "It's what I wanted to tell you the day we had gone to lunch with everyone. That thing that Jo knows…"

"What is it Logan?" Camille reached out and gently caressed the sides of his face. She brushed his falling strands out of his eyes, rubbing her thumb over his cheek. "You can tell me."

Logan brought up his hands and placed them over Camille's gently, running his fingers over of the back of her hands. "'Mille…Kendall's dad beat him." He could feel Camille's hands clench slightly, her fingers digging into the sides of his face, causing him to wince slightly. She curled her fingers in, keeping her nails away from his face, her eyes searching his.

"Are you serious?" she asked.

"Yes, Camille. I'm serious."

"…How come he's never said…?" Camille pulled her hands back and rested them in her lap. He could see she was doing her best to stay calm. "But, how come we haven't seen…? What?"

"For the most part he didn't remember it happened," Logan said. "He had blocked it out and it wasn't until the stress of coming out to LA and seeing him again that he started to remember. And when he remembered, he talked to Mama Knight and then…things snowballed from there."

Camille slowly nodded; her face blank. Suddenly, recognition came to it. "So _that's _why he was so upset at his father at the trial…because he was representing someone that had beat their own kids and was trying to make him seem innocent!" She snapped her fingers. "That's like that movie that I auditioned for last year: _Murder by Mother_!"

Logan gave her a funny look. "Lifetime movie?"

"Good guess."

His lips curling at the corners Logan shifted so he was looking out the front of the car. He was going to be late now; there was no question about that. But he didn't care at the moment. "So now that Mr. Knight wants to get back together with her…"

"…He's afraid that he'll start up again," Camille finished his thought for him. "I can see that." She then sucked in a sharp breath, looking at her boyfriend seriously. "You said only Jo knows about it? About him hitting Kendall?"

"Apart from me, Carlos, and James?" Logan nodded. "Yeah, she's the only one who knows."

"Not even—"

"Nope."

"But that doesn't make any sense!" Camille protested. "Why wouldn't Kendall, or Katie for that matter, tell the Jacksons what happened? If anyone would understand, they would."

"I don't know," Logan said honestly. "All I know is that Kendall made us promise not to tell them and we're not going to. It's none of our business to tell them."

Camille's eyes shifted into a knowing look. "Were you supposed to tell me?"

Logan smirked. "Not really, but I felt I had to at some point. He'll get over it."

"Really?"

There was a brief pause from the smarter member of the boy band. Camille laughed. "Probably not," he finally admitted. "In fact, he may use my head as a hockey puck. But he'll understand why I had to say something." He leaned into Camille and gave her another long kiss. "But we have to get going now or else Gustavo is going to use my head as his personal punching bag and, personally, I prefer a hockey puck."

Camille laughed again and settled back into her seat, pulling on her seatbelt as Logan turned on the car. He slowly backed out of the parking space and headed off towards _Pop Tiger_ headquarters. It was going to be one of the last times he and the boys worked with them and he was going to make the best of it.

* * *

"OK boys; turn this way slightly…yeah like that."

Kendall, Logan, Carlos, and James held their poses as the _Pop Tiger_ photographer continued to take picture after picture of the boy band. On the other side of the room the Jacksons, Dak, and Jo were watching the boys finish up the pictures before having to move onto the interviews that would be taking place afterward.

"It's kind of weird to know that this is going to be some of their last interviews as a band together, "Dak remarked, slouching in his seat, crossing his legs at the knee. His arms were out along the sides of the chair, Rhuben pressed against his side in the seat. "Of course after they're done they're just going to get more questions about the band possibly getting back together." He shook his head. "I never would've thought they would end it."

"You probably didn't think Katie would go crawling through air ducts for you either, mate," Patrick remarked, tossing a grape at him. It bounced off his forehead and rocketed to the floor. He cheered and slapped Noah a high-five.

"You really need to get over your jealousy of that, weasel," Rhuben commented with a lazy grin over towards her brother.

Patrick pouted and turned to Riley, who was sitting on the arm of a chair that Jo and Sydney were squeezed into, holding onto a pair of shirts on a hanger, looking back and forth between them. "Ri-bread, make her stop making fun of me!" He called over to her.

"Can't stop doing something that brings us so much joy, Pattycakes," Riley replied with a smirk. Sydney laughed loudly. She dropped the shirts into her lap and stuck her tongue out at her brother as he pouted, looking down at his hands. "No, but I get your point, Teen Icon. Considering they haven't actually announced it they're going to get nothing but backlash from the fans when the time comes, yeah? I don't think they're ready for that."

"Really?" Jo shot a concerned look over at James as he stood off to the side of the background set up for the photo, laughing along with Kendall, who looked happier than he had in days. "They've had to deal with some backlash before though, haven't they?" She stood up from the chair, taking the shirts from Riley and placing them back on the rack that sat beside them as it was filled with the rest of the looks the guys had used during their photo session.

The year before, the Jacksons had hired Jo to be Riley's assistant in the wardrobe department, helping her out whenever the costume closet needed organizing, when things had to be ordered for photo shoots or video shoots, getting new clothes from stores, getting samples that were being sent in from various designers and record companies, and accompanying Riley whenever she went to style someone that was under the Blazing Phoenix record label. Though Riley wasn't contracted to work with Big Time Rush anymore, she had decided to do the last photo shoot as a favor to Gustavo, taking Jo along to help her out.

Dak had gone along as he was going to be one of the opening acts to Big Time Rush's summer tour that the boys were headlining with Blazing Phoenix—after the Jacksons had changed their band name from the DarkElements to Blazing Phoenix, reminiscent to the mystical bird that was always reborn and the namesake to their father's record company. He was scheduled to have his interview done after Big Time Rush had finished theirs.

"Not in the way you'd think," Noah said to her. "They've had some problems with production on videos and then some fans that started to bad mouth them if some fans were paid more attention to on Scuttle Butter than others, but nothing like this."

"When it comes to rumors of a band ending, it does nothing but bring chaos and drama, Joey," Sydney added, giving her a meaningful look. "Especially when it's all speculation. You have fans that say they're ending like they know for sure, then the diehard fans that say they'll never break up. And you're going to disappoint someone." He shrugged as if he was saying that was the breaks of the music industry and it was.

There were so many bands that deserved to have more recognition that didn't simply because of a bad experience, getting black listed, or because people weren't helping them as much as they could've been. One of the worst things about being in the music industry was when your band ended and you had to figure out what else to do. Reporters speculated over what caused the band to split, who was going solo, who was mad at the other band members, who would be the one to be the most successful, who would crash and burn…

It was a heavy cloud that was now starting to creep over the boys and they didn't like it.

"Dak?" A _Pop Tiger_ intern walked over to the teen icon, a clipboard clutched to her chest. "We're ready for your interview now."

"Great, thanks." Dak got to his feet, stretching his arms over his head. He turned back to Rhuben, holding out his hand towards her. "You coming?" She glanced up at him, startled and then nodded, standing up and taking his hand. "You?" He turned back to the rest of the Jacksons.

"Nah." Sydney shook his head, his fringe flying in his face. "We're probably going to have our interview soon and Ronan basically threatened us with no dessert if we're not in his line of sight,"—he made a 'V' with his fingers and pointed them towards his eyes then across the room where Gustavo, Mrs. Knight, Kelly, and Ronan were standing (in that order)—"at all times."

"I find it so funny that you all will do basically anything within the thin line between legal and illegal and yet you're still afraid of getting your dessert taken away," Camille said.

"You try having to go without sugar for a day," Riley defended herself. "And see how you feel."

Dak chuckled, squeezing Rhuben's hand in his as they started to walk off towards the room where his interview was going to be. Leaning forward, he gazed into her face and then slowed to a stop, swinging his arm forward so that she spun in front of him. With his free hand, Dak lifted her chin so she was looking at him. "OK, what's wrong?" He pressed.

Rhuben shrugged. "Nothing," she denied.

"I think I know you well enough at this point to know when something's bothering you, Sugar Plum," he insisted. "What is it?"

The breath that Rhuben blew out of her mouth moved her purple strand off her forehead. "I'm just worried about the boys," she said. "They're all putting up a front at this point, and I know they're going to smash the tour…I just don't think they understand what they're getting into."

Dak nodded. "In other words, you're afraid they won't be able to handle the fall out."

"Do _you_?" Rhuben's eyebrows rose. "James is staying here in LA to work on his acting if he doesn't go solo, Kendall is going to be in Minnesota playing hockey for eight months, Carlos is…" she paused, tilting her head to the side. "Well, I don't really know what Carlos is going to do, but knowing him it's something that's going to warrant a trip to the hospital,"—Dak laughed—"Logan's going to Minnesota to study and we're going to keep shuttling back and forth from Oz to LA and—"

"How do I know you're not more concerned that Logan's leaving you?" Dak teased. Rhuben rolled her blue-violet eyes. "I mean, you were bound to get tired of me at some point, but I didn't think it'd be this soon."

"I've been tired of your for years, you just can't take a hint," Rhuben said. "Even if I was being straightforward." She stood up on her tiptoe sand gave him a quick kiss. "No, I'm not tired of you, boofhead. I'm just thinking that the boys don't understand what they're giving up."

Then Dak understood what she was getting at and what the Jacksons had not talked about after the first initial announcement. They were, arguably, the ones that had taken it the hardest behind the four Minnesota boys, after having taken so much of their time to help them in the music industry. "You're afraid that you wasted your time working on them, only for them to give up."

"Wouldn't you be?" Rhuben pressed. She sighed, swinging their arms back and forth, twisting her hand so that she laced her fingers with his. "I mean, you were the one that helped us out when we first got here. Wouldn't you be mad if we suddenly broke up?"

Dak shifted uncomfortably, knowing how sensitive what he was going to say was. "Isn't that kind of what happened with Syd?"

Rhuben twisted her mouth to the side as she nodded. It had thrown her for a loop when Sydney told his brothers and sisters that he had contemplated leaving the band because he wanted to focus on his school work, especially considering it all came around the same time that he had been told he was to give a speech and an scholarship award in their father's name. Many people said the youngest Jackson was exactly like their late father in many ways and it had given him a bit of an identity crisis. The rule for the Jacksons' band was that if one of them wanted to quit, then they would all stop making music as they generally preferred to do it together as they had been for years. So they had been scared of what was to happen while Sydney made up his mind.

But he had finally decided that he enjoyed being in the band too much and he would be able to juggle his school work and his band duties as long as he kept track of his work online. Still, the scare had given her a good idea of what the guys had been going through.

"Basically," Rhuben agreed.

"Yeah, but I wasn't mad about it," Dak reassured her. "Especially considering you all made a name in your own right back in Australia. I didn't really do a lot over here." He shrugged. "So it wasn't any of my business. It would've sucked, yeah, but it wasn't my call to make."

"You did enough," Rhuben reassured him. She reached out and gently poked him in the chest. "For me, anyway."

"Glad to hear it." Dak leaned in and gave her a long kiss, which she eagerly returned. "But you shouldn't worry about the guys so much. One thing they've taught me while they've been out here is that whatever they put their minds to, they're going to get it done. Right?" Rhuben nodded. "Good." They started walking off again. "Now don't be surprised if the interviewer asks you a few questions."

Rhuben regarded him suspiciously. Not only was she intuitive whenever someone was hiding something from her, but she could usually tell from body language and the way people's faces moved whether or not they were. At studying her boyfriend at that moment, there was something he wanted to laugh about, but wasn't sure how she would take it. "Like what?" she practically growled through gritted teeth.

Dak shrugged. "I don't know…" he trilled. "Something like how you like to baby me—"He let out a loud cry of pain as Rhuben whacked him on the arm. "Ow!" He laughed as Rhuben let go of his hand and increased her speed down the hallway. "I was kidding!"

"No, you weren't!"

"Sorry! Can you blame me?"

"I can blame you for when you suddenly go missing."

Dak laughed.

* * *

"Are you guys done?" Jo turned from the clothes rack that she had just replaced belts onto and regarded Kevin with surprise as he strolled up to her and the Jacksons. She exchanged a look with Camille as he reached up and grabbed onto the pass that rested around his neck. "I don't want to interrupt anything. I can come back later if need be."

Jo closed her mouth and shook her head. "No, they…uh…they just finished. They're getting changed back into their clothes," she said. She nodded over at him. "It's nice to see you again, Mr. Knight."

"You too, Jo," he replied. He gave her a kind smile. "I'm sorry things between you and Kendall didn't work out," he said.

Jo blinked in surprise as Camille gave a snort.

That had, really, come out of nowhere. She and Kendall hadn't been dating for a while and they were both over it, so hearing that he was sorry about it was…strange. How much of Kendall's life did he know about without having actually been in it? How much did he know about her when she barely knew a thing about him in the first place? Better question was what was he doing there when no one wanted him around? Even looking behind him, she could see the Jacksons looking at Kevin oddly, if not with a mixture of anxiety, ready to go to Kendall's and Katie's defense when it was needed.

"Thank you," she said as calmly as possible, looking over at Riley, whose eyes were narrowed as she looked at the man.

"Dad, what are you doing here?" Kevin turned back to his son as he, James, Logan, and Carlos walked over to the group, holding hangers of shirts over their shoulders. Kendall had his gaze steady on his father, even when he handed his girlfriend his hanger. "What are you doing here?"

Kevin smiled at him. "I wanted to see what one of your photo shoot sessions was like," he explained. "But I guess I missed it. Sorry about that."

"I'm sure there'll be others," Carlos said helpfully.

"Where's Katie?"

"She had some homework that she needed to finish," Kendall said with an air of uneasiness. He glanced at his mother over his shoulder. "Mom's been on her with it lately and she fell a bit behind so…" he reached out and scratched the side of his neck, turning back to Kevin.

"Oh, is your mother here too?" Kevin's eyebrows rose and his smile widened. "Good, so I can tell her about it at the same time."

James shifted over to Jo and gave his girlfriend a kiss on the temple. "What's going on?" He murmured in her ear, sending shivers down her spine. Jo turned into him, wrapping her arms around his waist and leaning into his side, resting her cheek on his stomach.

"I don't know," She replied. "He just showed up." She tilted her head back and looked up at him when she felt him stiffen under her grasp. He was staring daggers into Kevin's back as the man waved Kelly, Gustavo, Ronan, and Mrs. Knight over to join the group. "James…don't."

"I'm not going to do anything, Jo," James murmured in reply, his eyes still on the blond man. "Not unless he makes me do something." He finally looked down at her. "I'm not going to have him hurt them again, I'm not."

"I know," Jo agreed. "Just…please relax a bit. We don't know what he has to say."

"What are you doing here, Knight?" Gustavo spat as soon as he was in ear shot of the man. "Did you come here to ruin something else?"

Sydney, as diplomatic as ever, let out a patient sigh, crossing his arms over his chest. "Don't you think you owe the bloke a chance to explain himself before you jump down his throat?"

"No," Gustavo said stubbornly.

Kelly elbowed Gustavo in the side before turning to Kevin. "Go ahead," she said diplomatically. "What is it that you wanted to say?"

Kevin's eyes flashed as he shoved his hands into his pockets. "Well, I know how much stress and pressure you guys are all under while you're trying to get the last bit of work done before the summer tour and I thought you guys all deserved a much needed break."

Mrs. Knight's right eyebrow lowered as she regarded her ex-husband. "What's going on, Kevin?"

"How does a vacation in the Bahamas sound to you guys?" Kevin asked. His charismatic smile widened. "All of us and all of your friends too."

"Seriously?" Camille asked.

"Everyone," Kevin insisted. "I want to you guys to be able to have some fun and to hang out with your friends and just have a good time, right before you go off and do your own thing."

Riley looked skeptical. "Do you think that's the best thing right now?" She asked. "I mean, I'm not knocking you, dude, I'm just saying. It might not be very responsible to go out at a time like this." Jo looked over at the raven haired girl, not able to miss the very subtle insult she had sent the man's way. She then looked back at Kevin. If he had noticed, he wasn't showing that it irritated him.

Patrick and Noah gave identical smirks at their sister's remark, Sydney smiled and shook his head, and Ronan moved a hand up to cover his mouth though Jo was sure he was trying not to show his smile as well.

"In my opinion, it'd be irresponsible to go straight into a tour completely stressed out," Kevin said smoothly. "I would do the same thing before my hockey games. I'd go somewhere to clear my head and to chill out then go back to the game with total concentration." He shrugged modestly. "I didn't do so badly if I say so myself."

_Now I know where Kendall gets it, _Jo thought. _Why he always needs the ice to 'clear his head'._

"I don't know," Mrs. Knight hesitated. "I wouldn't feel comfortable if you paid for everyone's way to get there. That has to be really expensive."

"Don't worry about it," Kevin reassured her. "It's a gift. Plus, it'll give me some time to be able to spend with Kendall and Katie…like a family."

"That worked well the first time," Camille said. Logan gave her a disapproving look and she lowered her gaze.

"It's just a vacation," Kevin insisted. "You can do whatever you want when you get there. We don't have to spend every waking minute together. I just want you all to have some fun." He held up his hands as if he was about to fend off some blows. "I promise."

The question was is it a promise he could keep?

* * *

**A/N: **Sorry for the wait guys, I had to get stuff ready to move and then it was moving day and I haven't had internet for a bit, but I finally managed to get the chapter done. There was some Dalla and Jameo in this chapter and there will be other pairings as the story goes on.

The main plot of the story is the love triangle with Kevin, Mrs. Knight, and Ronan, a second plot is how Kendall and Katie are still dealing with Kevin, and then the third plot with the rest of the kids is their dealing with the fact they're all going to be leaving each other soon (just like when friends leave from high school to college) and what goes along with that.

I hope you guys liked the chapter and I'll update again soon.

Cheers,

-Riles


	7. It's Going To Be A Good Vacation, Right?

**.:Chapter Seven:.**

* * *

Mrs. Knight sighed as she ran her hands over her face. If her frustration was evident, it clearly wasn't having an impact on the teenagers that sat on the floor around her, going through their things to put into their own suitcases.

It also didn't help that Carlos seemed to be having a grand time whipping the guys in the face with his t-shirts more than anything else. She could already James's impatience wearing thin as each throw of the t-shirt back at Carlos was accompanied by a harsher glare and his jaw tightening even further. Like a game of cat and mouse, as the seconds passed she was aware of there being a possible homicide right in front of her.

Logan, on the other hand, was doing a good job of staying in control as well as he could. He even had made up a list of the things that needed to be packed and periodically consulted it whenever something was added to the suitcase. His clothes were rolled neatly into his suitcase, maximizing the area he had to place extra things into his suitcase.

Kendall was the only one that was sitting off to the side, his bag already packed. Having gotten used to traveling due to his hockey games as well as going to family reunions, he packed a lot quicker than the other boy did, though he had a tendency to wait until the last minute to do so, just like he had done this time. It had been two weeks since Kevin sprung the news of their trip on them and she was still anxious about it.

Kendall and Katie had slowly warmed up to the idea but that was only after she had begged them to at least try to have a good vacation. "It's like he said, if you just want to hang out with your friends or a while, then you can do that," Mrs. Knight said, stretched out across her bed. Kendall and Katie sat in front of her exchanging a glance as they listened to her campaign. "It's one of the first vacations we've had in a while and its being completely paid for…"

"Yeah, by someone who hasn't paid child support until this year," Katie reminded her. "And that's only one part of the things he was supposed to do, according to the papers."

Kendall gave his sister a funny look. "You don't get papers when you get separated, Baby Sister," he pointed out. "You only get them when you get divorced, because of splitting the assets and everything."

Bringing a hand up to her chin, Katie slowly nodded. She then leaned forward and patted her mother on the arm. "Remind me to write up some papers for you and Dad, I have this connection over in New York, he works for a law firm, I'm sure he can help me out."

Kendall's eyes widened. "What sort of people do you meet in your online poker group?"

Katie smiled.

Mrs. Knight laughed as she brushed her auburn hair out of her eyes. "If I may interrupt, I need your final decisions so I can tell Kevin how many people are going."

Kendall sighed heavily. He reached out and grabbed onto his feet, starting to rock back and forth. "Who's going?" He asked in a low voice. He kept his gaze on the flowery swirls on her comforter. They hypnotized him as he rocked back and forth. At least that way he had something to focus on other than the frustration that continued to swirl inside him.

"At this point I'm waiting to see what Gustavo and Kelly say, Ronan says that Julius and Brittany might come as well, it really depends on whether or not they can get a flight from Australia in time, but everyone else is going," Mrs. Knight said. At the quick jolt of Kendall's eyebrow, she knew what he was thinking. How strange was it that Kevin had insisted on Ronan going as well? Whether or not he had heard the stories of the mischief they got in when unsupervised—or just plain bored as they defended themselves—it was a bit of a shock to know that he was being welcomed with open arms.

Part of Mrs. Knight thought her husband was up to something, kind of like how Kendall and Katie thought Kevin was really just trying to butter them up with the trip. Another part of her knew her ex-husband well enough to know when he was being sincere and there was nothing in his tone that led her to believe he was being deceitful.

"It's a trip they can't pass up," Mrs. Knight said, defending her kids' friends. "How many other times will they get a free vacation?" She mimicked Kendall and arched an eyebrow herself. "Do you think Gustavo would ever do that?"

Kendall let out a loud bark of laughter, startling Katie.

"I'll take that as a 'no'," Mrs. Knight said. She finally sat up and wearily looked at her kids. "I don't get it," she said after a long moment. "Just a couple of weeks ago you were willingly going to the sports store to get some new hockey gear, then you get back and it's like he's the spawn of Satan."

"Well—"

"Save it," Mrs. Knight interrupted Katie. She had recognized that glint in her daughter's eye and knew to nip it in the bud as quickly s she could. She looked back and forth between her son and daughter once more. "Is there something you're not telling me?"

Kendall and Katie had exchanged a glance for a few moments and then everything had come spilling out. How Kevin had said he thought about getting back together with her, how he thought it would be a good way to bring their family back together. How freaked out they had been thinking it was true, and what that meant for everyone around them.

Mrs. Knight blinked rapidly as she tried to digest everything they had told her. Finally, she reached up a finger, an imaginary light bulb going off over her head. She gave Kendall a sad, knowing smile. "You haven't told the Jacksons what Kevin did to you yet, have you?"

"Wow, Mom, nothing gets by you," Katie said sarcastically. "You know, other than the fact that he turns into a freak when the topic of conversation gets brought up." Kendall elbowed her in the side before turning back to his mother, guiltily lowering his eyes.

"It hasn't been the right time to say anything," he mumbled.

"Well, did you think it was the right time for _them _to say something when you practically dragged it out of them?" Mrs. Knight countered. Kendall lowered his head even further, hoping to cover his face with his fringe. It didn't work so well, now that he had gotten a haircut for the New Year. "Sweetie, have you ever thought that things like that happen for a reason? That the reason you all met the Jacksons was so that you could help them?" Kendall shrugged and nodded. "What if Kevin's being back in your life was supposed to happen so you could come to terms with what he did to you?" She asked. "Don't forget, you were the one that decided against going to see a doctor."

"I was eight; did you think I'd _want _to be asked a bunch of useless questions when all I wanted to do was play hockey?" Kendall shot back.

"You should've gone, Big Brother," Katie teased, elbowing him in the ribs. "It would make a bunch of things a _whole _lot clearer. Like, the way you _have _to eat you chips with the salty side down."

"Who likes to eat a dry chip?"

Mrs. Knight laughed as she watched her son and daughter playfully argue before finally getting their confirmations—begrudging on Kendall's part—that they were going to go too. (Not that she thought they wouldn't go after hearing all of their friends were going to go. She was sure the sudden blush that appeared on her daughter's cheeks had something to do with that thought as well). Once alone she finally had a chance to think about what Kendall and Katie had told them. That Kevin was thinking about getting back together with her, or had at least entertained the thought of it.

Who knows how they would have reacted if she told them she had wondered the same thing. As much as she enjoyed Ronan's company, when Kevin had started to come around more she couldn't help but question it herself. Had he really changed? His temper didn't get the best of him as much as it used to. He wasn't making excuses for anything and he was on a good schedule when it came to picking up his kids and visiting them when the time came. And there was that pesky matter that they weren't official divorced.

It had been that nagging feeling that let her know she couldn't continue to date Ronan while she continued to feel that way. It wouldn't be fair to him or herself. If she knew how badly her kids were going to take it, she would've done a better job of keeping it a secret.

Now as she sat in the kitchen of 2J, watching the boys try to put their things together, she felt nothing but gratitude towards them all. They were trying to be supportive in the wake of hers and Ronan's breakup and even though that episode with the flowers had been a bit embarrassing—and glaringly obvious—it was the thought that counted. They just wanted her to be happy.

"CARLOS! I swear to God, if you hit me with that again—"

"James, you're Jewish. You don't believe in God."

"I think that's beside the point, Carlos," Logan whispered to him.

"Oh!" Then there was the sound of a loud crash and Carlos's high-pitched scream as he ran away from the tall brunet that was now gunning after him. Kendall and Katie sat with Logan and watched as they ran around the couches and chairs, screaming and yellow.

Gently shaking her head, Mrs. Knight got up and placed her hands on her hips. "HEY!" She shouted. James skidded to a halt behind the couch. Carlos stopped so fast that his forward momentum brought him crashing to the ground, knocking his forehead against the floor.

There was a moment of silence.

"I think that's why he needed the helmet," Katie remarked, causing Kendall and Logan to laugh again.

Walking over to the teenagers, Mrs. Knight scanned the items on the floor; James's hair care products, Kendall's hockey gear, Logan's first aid kit, Katie's magazines, and whatever else it was that Carlos needed. "OK, this is what we're going to do! Logan, finish organizing your first aid kit and put it by the door, I know you're being cautious and want to be prepared, which proves that you're going to do a great job when your classes start in the fall." Logan smiled at her. "James, find some other bag to put your cosmetics in and make sure it doesn't get mixed up with mine this time." Her upper lip curled. "I don't want to make the mistake of using your massive hold when I want to use a detangler."

James shrugged. "It helped me out in the long run and your hair looked _fantastic_, Mama Knight."

"Kendall, get your hockey sticks by the front door so none of us trip on it…again, Katie put your magazines in your carry-on bag. I know you and Lizzie are going to want something to do on the plane and I'm not going to have my beauty rest interrupted because you're constantly asking me where things are."

"Geez, it's no wonder she doesn't like long road trips," Katie murmured to her brother, who nodded.

"And Carlos…just pick everything up," Mrs. Knight said, waving her hand out towards the clothes that were scattered over the floor. "Once all of that's done, then we can order in some pizza and get to sleep to catch our early flight."

"I'd love to, but I've gotta get back," Kendall said, rolling over to get to his feet. "I'm sure at this point Yuma's caught on that she's going to be sent to the kennel and it hiding somewhere." He went over to his mother and gave her a kiss on the cheek. "I'll see you at the airport tomorrow."

"Are you sure you're going to show up?" Mrs. Knight gave him a knowing look.

Kendall gave her a look in reply and gave her another kiss before leaving the apartment.

Mrs. Knight sighed, running her hand through her hair as Carlos and James started to run around the apartment once more. While they were too busy running around, Katie reached out and grabbed a sweatshirt from each of the boys, shoving it into her suitcase. She smiled.

No matter how bad of a mood she was in, somehow they always seemed to make her feel better.

* * *

"Hey, I'm back." Kendall opened the door to his apartment and kicked off his green vans, leaving them by the red pair that sat by the door. He tossed his keys into the bowl that sat on the table and closed the door behind him.

"Hey, Hockey-Head," Riley replied from the stove, her back towards him. "I'm making hot dogs for dinner." His pet pig, Yuma, suddenly came scurrying back from the laundry room, a basket on her head, squealing loudly. Kendall stooped down and took the basket off her head, bringing her up into his arms. "Woops, I think I scared her."

"Wouldn't be the first time," Kendall remarked. "I mentioned 'bacon' to her once and she nearly keeled over." Pushing his bangs off his forehead he walked over to the living room and dropped down onto the couch. Riley's maltipoo puppy, Spencer, sat on the floor nipping at a frayed rope. He placed Yuma on his chest and allowed her to walk back and forth as he stretched out, putting his arms behind his head and closing his eyes. "I'm not hungry."

"Is this your 'I-just-lost-a-game-and-I'm-angry' not hungry or your 'I'm-having-an-existential-crisis-over-nothing' not hungry?" Riley turned down the flames underneath the stove and turned to face her boyfriend.

Kendall opened an eye and looked at her. "You're not funny."

"I'm hysterical." Riley walked over to him and picked Yuma up into her arms. She straddled Kendall's waist as she sat down on the couch, he instinctively drew up his legs so when she leaned back she was resting against his legs. "What's up?" Though the words were kind of harsh there was a soothing edge to her tone.

Kendall's chest and stomach swelled as he took in a deep breath before focusing on the ceiling. "I just don't get why everyone's so excited to be going to the Bahamas," he said.

Riley gave him a 'duh' look. "Does the words 'free, paid vacation' mean nothing to you?" She tilted her head to the side. "I know you're a blond, but you're not that dumb." Kendall rolled his eyes. "Besides, my siblings and I've been working for years and haven't really had time off, so this vacation is something beauty."

A snort escaped Kendall before he could stop it. "And get dragged around to the educational things Logan's going to inevitably take us to when you're not too busy being stuck in awkward silences with my Mom, my Dad, and Ronan? No thanks!"

"Actually, I was thinking more of the beach, the sand, vacation, probably no curfew…" Riley trailed off as she bobbed her head back and forth.

"You don't have a curfew," Kendall reminded her.

"That's not the point. The point is that there'd be no work related stress..." she shrugged. "I don't know, it sounded romantic to me."

"Glad to see I've rubbed off on you, Ruby." Kendall grabbed her hand and kissed the back of it, interlacing his fingers with hers. Riley rolled her eyes, but allowed the motion, smiling a little as her cheeks flushed and her eyes lit up.

"Not only for us, boofhead," she said swinging her head so her hair moved out of her eyes. "Though don't be surprised if you don't see Logan and Camille at all the whole time they're there. Something tells me they're going to be taking advantage of this vacation." A light chuckle escaped Kendall's lips. "I meant for Ronan and Mama Knight. Admittedly our last few plans crashed and burned, but you can't beat ambiance, yeah?"

"But what if something goes wrong with the three of them being there? I mean, we're trying to get Mom and Ronan back together and then we're all going on vacation with my Dad, who's trying to get back together with _her_!" He closed his eyes once more.

There was a long period of silence.

"I don't mean this the wrong way, Kendall, but is it really a bad thing if your Dad gets back together with your Mom?" Kendall's eyes snapped open at her question. Mostly because he recognized the seriousness of her tone as she had called him by his first name, but also partially because of what she had said. "Yeah, he walked out on you, but things were fine with you lot and you were actually starting to become friends with him again before this came up, yeah? So what's the big deal?"

Kendall knew then was the best chance for him to tell her what Kevin had done to him when he was younger but…he couldn't. His body wouldn't allow him to. He had thought about it so many times before and had nearly had a panic attack just thinking about it. He wasn't sure how she would react and actually dreaded the way she would react. Bringing it up now was not the best time.

"Do you think that's a good idea?"

Riley shrugged, her eyes flashing. "Don't you?"

Kendall hummed. Sitting up, he shuffled back until his back was resting against the arm rest of the couch. He brought one hand behind his head, lifting his chin defiantly. "You don't get it…as much as I would like him to be there, like I had when I was a kid…there's still so much he did wrong. He only just gave us back the child support money he owed us; he's only _just _doing his visitation rights! Do you know how long I had waited for it?"

"Was waiting really the problem or was it that he didn't show that he _wanted_ to be around what bothered you the most?"

_She has a point. _If what Kevin had said was true, that he had wanted to get back in touch with them shortly after he left but was too ashamed to do it, what would've happened if Kendall went and asked about him? Still the man had cheated on his mother and became so guilty that he had started to drink, got angry, beat him, and left when he was given an ultimatum. Maybe it was his guilt that was still driving him now?

"I don't know," Kendall said.

He didn't want to talk about it anymore. He had brought the conversation on himself and he was already annoying himself with it. It wasn't that she wasn't on his side, he knew she was and always would be unless she found it was something that was against what she personally believed to be right—and that had happened on more than one occasion, prompting some of their few, albeit nasty fights—but that she was trying to help him see the big picture and not just how he felt while still being on his side. It was frustrating how right she could be sometimes.

She never liked to outright give him advice on his problems unless the situation allowed, usually preferring that he worked out his own problems with a bit of prodding from her. It was moments like that that helped they had been—and still were—best friends before dating.

"I think things would be fine if they stayed the way they were. I don't want my Mom to get hurt in the long run and even though I wouldn't want them to get back together…that doesn't mean that I don't want my Dad back. Not really…I don't think." Kendall looked surprised then gazed at his girlfriend warily. Somehow she still managed to work her magic. "How'd you do that?"

Riley smirked and winked at him.

* * *

"Katie, would you please _stop_ unpacking my backpack!"

Katie looked startled before glancing at Patrick, who took his backpack from her lap and started to shove the notebooks, pens, pencils, sunglasses, sun block, Chap Stick, books, and wallet back inside. She hadn't even noticed that she started to take everything out his bag. She was bored, waiting for the plane to leave and having had to get up so early just to catch the flight had picked up his bag and started to mess around with it.

Besides, what if there was something inside that he was planning on giving her? Some sort of a gift maybe. Or was there a song that he was writing about her? She never thought she was the kind of girl that would've liked that, finding it kind of awkward when she thought about it, but the attention would've been nice. Rather than him being completely engrossed in the game he was playing on his phone.

"Sorry," she apologized. "I'm just bored."

"Join the club," Patrick agreed. Pointing with his chin towards his twin brother who sat across from him with Lizzie he said, "If it weren't for the fact that we could get banned from this airport, we probably would've commandeered a security cart by now."

Noah shook his head. "It wasn't that we would be banned," he corrected his brother. "Just that security is tired of seeing us."

"I swear, you boys get into too much stuff for your own good," Lizzie said. She brushed her long blonde hair out of her face. "And I thought Kendall and them were bad. But they didn't shut down an entire airport."

"You shut down an entire airport?" Katie turned back to Patrick, who gave a sheepish smile.

He rolled his eyes, putting his phone down. "She's making it sound worse than it actually is," he said. "Back in Oz we were going to take a quick flight down to New Zealand, yeah? And there was this passenger who was taking his reptile collection to some convention or something and the five of us were playing catch and Syd lost control of the ball—"

"You mean _you_ lost control of the ball," Noah reminded him.

Patrick waved a hand. "And lizards got everywhere." He shrugged as if it were no big deal. "Good thing is the island we're going to have more than enough things to keep us preoccupied." He glanced at Katie out of the corner of his eye. "And keep you away from your Dad if you don't want to be around him."

Katie flushed and looked away from him. On one hand she was glad he paid close enough attention to her that he knew what she was really thinking, but another part of her wanted to smack him on the arm and tell him to shut up, to stay out of her business. It was bad enough she was even questioning him being around again, when it was something she had secretly wanted for a while. Growing up, the attention was always on Kendall if not for how _he _was feeling and how his hockey was going. Being the younger sister she sat back on the sidelines and watched as he fielded questions left and right and acted like he had everything together.

While she, on the other hand, forgot about the man that used to be there and had become a girl so independent that she had even hurt her mother when she realized she wasn't needed as much as she could have been. It just made her wonder, what would've been different? If Katie were older when he left would she had been closer to her mother and not as independent? Would she have become girlier and not have to suffer from the embarrassment of the guys constantly watching over who she dated? (Scratch that, Kendall, Logan, Carlos, and James would've wanted to know who she was dating anyway). But they wouldn't have become so much of a father figure to all of them.

But would she have wanted that either? She and Kendall were super close because of their father leaving in general. With the three year age gap between them she was sure they wouldn't be the way they were now if Kevin had still been around.

_I guess there are a lot of things that Dad's leaving really helped, _Katie thought. Turning in her seat, she glanced over at him as he sat in an empty chair a little bit away from the rest of the group. He looked like he _was _part of the group, but was on his own at the same time. The same way she felt while first trying to fit in with the "Hollywood Culture" she had grown accustomed to. _Maybe we have more in common than I thought._

"Watcha lookin' at girl?" Lizzie asked. "A hot guy?"

"I hope not," Patrick joked. She could hear the slight twinge of insecurity in his voice.

Katie rolled her eyes, twisting back around in her seat. Noah looked at her curiously, but didn't say anything, waiting for her answer. "No, I was just watching my Dad," she said. "He looks kinda…I don't know…" she shrugged. "Sad?"

"He looks OK to me," Noah remarked, in his soft voice. He slouched down in his chair, blue eyes directly pointed at the blond man. "Just like he doesn't want to overstep his boundaries with anything." His eyes then shifted to the side to Big Time Rush. "Or he's trying to keep from getting annoyed at the guys as they play that slapping game." As if to prove his point, Carlos and Logan screeched loudly as Kendall and James got a slap on their hands and cheered, their voices echoing throughout the airport terminal. His eyes moved back to Katie. "Don't be surprised if Gustavo murders your brother."

"Hey, I'd finally get first dibs on pizza," Katie said with a shrug and a smile. _But what happens when Kendall really does leave? He's already moving out, what if he leaves you completely? _The thought surprised her.

"Good to know you have your priorities straight, girl," Lizzie agreed with an enthusiastic nod and thumbs up. "The three things that every girl needs in life, pizza, boys, and shopping."

"I'm sure Katie's is more like money, money, and money," Patrick said. Katie elbowed him in the side as he laughed and put his arm around the back of her chair. Cheeks reddening even further, Katie turned her gaze to her feet. The two of them had been dating for about half a year at that point and she was still not used to the attention he gave her, especially considering he was her first boyfriend. But no matter how he always seemed to be doing the right things, she knew he was nervous too as she was his first girlfriend.

"It's going to be a good vacation, right?" She asked, leaning her head on his shoulder, pushing all thoughts of her father out of her head. She wouldn't allow him to ruin a good time and besides, it would be fun to think of different ways to put Ronan and Mrs. Knight back together while on vacation.

What other time was better?

"Right," Patrick confirmed. "And if you need help swiping any of the guys' towels to sell to the inevitable hoards of fans that you'll find yourself scamming, I deserve twenty percent of what you make."

Katie grinned.


	8. I'm Already Being Left Behind

**.:Chapter Eight:.**

* * *

"Wow, this room is cool!"

"Dude, check out the view!"

"I'm _so _going surfing later today."

Logan scoffed as he walked into the suite style hotel room after James, Carlos, and Kendall. "Are you kidding? There's so much history and things to explore here!" He put his suitcase down on the floor, off to the side and pulled out a brochure from the back pocket of his jeans. Sticking his nose into the paper, he missed the pained expressions the other three boys sent each other. "This whole hotel is based off of the famed city of Atlantis so the history for it is everywhere. Then there are all of the attractions! Did you know the aquariums here hold over 500,000—"

"No one cares," Carlos interrupted.

Logan sniffed as he closed his brochure. "Camille and I care. _And_ we're going to be going to see each and every one while we're here."

"If Syd doesn't beat you to it," Kendall remarked, sitting down on the window sill, looking out over the beach. "Something tells me that if he's not constantly in the water, like I'm assuming all of the rest of them are going to be, he's going to be running around to each aquarium and museum as fast as his legs can carry him." He turned back to his smarter friend and smirked at him. "So I hope you don't mind if your dates get crashed."

"Either that or you have to remember that no one likes your PDA!" James, who had stretched out on the luxurious couch, picked up an extra pillow and threw it at Logan's head. Logan stuck his tongue out as he grabbed the pillow and threw it back to James.

Carlos laughed and picked up his suitcase, walking into the room that was directly to his left. "James and I call this room!" He shouted loudly.

"Go for it," Kendall called back unfazed. He had turned back to the beach and was scanning the water once more. It really was perfect. The water was crystal blue, beaches sandy white; he could hear the screams and laughter from those that were in the water and running along the beach. From what he had seen, waiting in the vast lobby of the Royal Towers Hotel portion of the entire resort, there were dance clubs, areas to golf, and practically anything he could ever think of as an amenity at the resort. If they had a hockey rink somewhere he a) wouldn't be surprised and b) would've though he had died and gone to heaven. "Feel free to get room service or whatever, Dad's gonna pay for all of it anyway."

His voice had lowered at the end, turned cold and disinterested. It hadn't reached Carlos, who was already back in the room he and James was going to share, thumping and banging around. Probably checking to see which closet was bigger so he could snag it before James could even look at it himself. Logan and James had recognized his tone and exchange worried glances before James cleared his throat and moved over to his best friend.

"Hey, are you OK?" James placed his hand on Kendall's shoulder. Kendall shrugged, bobbing his head back and forth. "I know things are really confusing for you and Katie and Mama Knight right now, but this is a vacation for you guys too."

Kendall sneered. "Don't you mean it's a ploy to fast track his way back into our good graces?" He appeared ashamed as soon as the words came out of his mouth. Dropping his foot from the window sill he turned to face James and Logan. "You guys out of everyone understand what I'm going through," he said. James and Logan nodded; James's father having never really grown up out of his bachelor lifestyle divorced his mother and starting going out with women who were near James's age, which had alienated the whole Diamond family, thus making his relationship with his son hard. Logan's father had been placed in jail when he was young for drug trafficking and the two barely had any contact if not being a rare occurrence of Logan ever going to visit him in jail. "Things were fine the way they were before, now I can't help but wonder if the one second I say something wrong or turn my back I'm going to get a hockey stick across the back of my skull."

"Well, think of it this way," Logan said. "Do you really think that he would do something with so many witnesses around?" He gestured towards the beach. "Even if it isn't us, there're a lot of people _everywhere. _I wouldn't be surprised if they have some sort of a secret service SWAT team in hiding."

"Dude!" James reached out and placed his hand on Logan's shoulder, squeezing it excitedly. "Do you think they have hair salons here?"

"Do you plan on getting cornrows?" Kendall gave him a funny look.

James rolled his eyes before whipping his handheld mirror out of his pocket and studying his reflection. "Though I would look _good_ with cornrows." Kendall and Logan looked at each other and rolled their eyes. No matter how much time passed and how much they grew up, James was always going to have his appearance in high regards compared to others.

"_Anyway_!" Logan's forceful tone caused James to put the mirror away and flashed his pearly whites in a charming smile. "I was going to say that you and your Dad had been making great progress before he mentioned the possibility of getting back together with Mama Knight. What is it about that that's made it different now?"

James cleared his throat. "Especially since that's what you wanted before."

Kendall made a humming sound but didn't immediately reply. He was right. It was exactly what he had wanted before. When he was younger and he would watch his mother struggle with bills and try to protect Katie from the fact that the days after their father had left had stretched longer and longer. He had begged whatever higher power he believed in and remembered studying in school, wishing on every four leaf clover he could find, plucking out a few of his eyelashes to make wishes on them, and wished whenever he found his favorite, which also doubled as his lucky number, anywhere. And yet, all of that gave him was disappointment and a lot of wasted time.

He stopped asking for it by the time his tenth birthday came around, using the wish on his birthday candles instead to ask for a new set of hockey pads. Which he _did _end up getting. (Though that was really a fluke because he and Katie had found them one day while they had been snooping around after their mother had gone to work at the diner for the night). As far as he was concerned, his mother still hadn't figured out how they had been able to do that.

"It's not that I'm only afraid he's going to hit me again," Kendall said slowly. "Because that is something I think about a lot. I'm also worried that he and Mom are going to start dating again…and then he'll cheat on her again. It really destroyed her when she found out about it…the guilt having caused Dad to freak out anyway." He shrugged. "It would be like; Mom ended a really good relationship that was good for her _and _Ronan just to be cheated on again and I don't think she can handle that let alone the fact I'd want to bust his face in if he ever did."

"Are you sure you're not still bitter that he beat you in that hockey game?"

"Very funny."

"What's funny?" Carlos walked out of the bedroom and back over to the guys, his eyes wide in earnest.

Kendall, Logan, and James all hesitated, not sure if he would understand. Carlos was one of the most empathetic and sensitive people they could ever meet or be glad to be friends with. He was the best one to go to whenever they needed to be comforted; he always seemed to have the ability to know the minute he looked at them and in minutes had whoever was upset in a better mood. And yet…he wouldn't understand what Kendall was going through or what James and Logan had gone through before. His parents were still together and happily married, seeming to get increasingly happy as the years passed.

"Nothing," James finally said.

Carlos frowned, but nodded. Something flashed through his gut, causing his stomach muscles to clench, just as his heart felt it was being. He knew he wasn't being told something.

"We were just planning all of the things we want to do while we're here."

James looked at his watch before reaching over to Logan and snatching the brochure out his hands. Logan made a whining sound, a paper cut slicing through his skin. "Ow!"

"They have jet skis here," James said. "Why don't' we go and do that?"

"Sounds good to me," Carlos agreed. He quickly bounced back from his initial disappointment, though he couldn't completely ignore the feeling. "Let me just get my swim trunks and we can get going."

"You guys go ahead," Kendall said after a minute. He pushed off the window sill and lowered his sunglasses from his hair down over his eyes. "I'm going to see how Mom and Katie got settled in. I'll catch up with you later." He patted Logan on the shoulder before grabbing his card key out from the card holder that came with the room, and walked out, closing the door behind him. He walked around the spiraling hallways, nodding at whomever he came across.

Finally, he reached the room his mother and sister was sharing and knocked on the door. He could hear rapid footsteps thudding towards the door and stood back as Katie flung the door open. "Have you seen these rooms?!" She cried. Kendall laughed and walked into the room. "I can say one thing for sure; Dad really knows what to do with his tax dollars."

"Yeah and it only took him about eleven years to let us in on this life as well," Kendall said.

"Oh quit complaining, Big Brother, this is only a little bit better than the places Gustavo could afford for us." Katie led Kendall over to the living room and jumped onto the couch, bouncing along with the coiling springs. "And he's probably pissed about it too."

"I wouldn't doubt it," Kendall admitted. He sat down next to his sister, crossing his legs. "Where's Mom?"

"Sleeping," Katie said. Kendall nodded. "You know how she is after a long flight. Jet lag really messes her up. Just like having to get up early in the morning." She brushed her long hair over her shoulders. "What's wrong, Big Brother?"

Kendall let out a long sigh. "Everything and nothing," he admitted. "I'm starting to feel like a jerk, really." Katie raised an eyebrow. "Because of this whole vacation thing. I _know _that Dad and I, and you and Dad, were really starting to get along again. But then the news of Dad wanting to get back together really freaks me out."

"Kinda freaks me out too, Big Bother," Katie admitted. She lowered her head. "But for a different reason."

"Really?"

"Yeah…" Katie started to play with her shoelace.

She squirmed for a minute and Kendall continued to watch her, waiting for her to speak. What was she supposed to say? She was tired of her Big Brother getting the attention all the time? That she was afraid that when he finally did leave that he would completely forget about her? That he would become too engrossed in hockey and the fame that would inevitably come with it—because he was super talented—that it would be like she didn't exist? That she wasn't sure what part of her father she shared. That she didn't know how to start a relationship with him again because he was already starting to focus on Kendall more, just like he used to?

All of the above?

None of the above?

And like she usually did, she decided not to bring it up. "It's nothing big, really, just…it's weird," she said. "Thinking of Mom and Dad being together…" she scratched the side of her neck. "Honestly, I'm surprised he didn't try and have Mom share a room with him."

Kendall thought about it for a moment then his features screw up in disgust. Bad images! Things he didn't need to think about. He slapped his hands over his ears, as if that would keep even more disgusting and disturbing thoughts come flying into his head. "Ugh! Thanks Baby Sister, I really needed to think about that." He looked at her carefully. "And how do you know about it anyway?"

Katie rolled her eyes. "I'm sixteen, Kendall, not _dead_!"

"Still, my baby sister shouldn't be thinking about—"

"I'm _not_!"

"Good!"

Katie tilted her head back and laughed. "You're so weird."

"No, I just worry about you, Baby Sister," Kendall said. He sobered for a moment, giving her a meaningful smile. "Especially because I'm going to be leaving soon. I want to be sure you're OK before I'm gone."

That would've been the perfect moment for Katie to explain all of her grievances. How scared she was that her Big Brother, her best friend, was going to be going back to Minnesota while she stayed in California. How she hoped that their relationship will continue to stay as strong as it was though it'd be the first time they were ever apart—not including the years she wasn't born.

_Don't freak him out, Katie, _she thought. _He already has a lot to deal with considering Dad's going with him back to Minnesota. _She twisted her hands around each other, playing with her fingers. "I'll be OK," she said finally. "Mom and I can handle things while you're gone." She pointed at him. "But don't forget that if you start to get a lot of media attention, which you will, I'm still acting as your talent manager and I deserve twenty percent of all of your endorsements and sponsorships."

"Deal." Kendall held out his hand and they did their handshake. He leaned forward and placed his hands on the sides of Katie's face and pressed his forehead against hers. "But don't' think that you're going to be able to hide my clothes and sell them later. I'm still getting fans sending me pictures of themselves wearing the clothes I thought I had lost."

Kate made a show of snapping her fingers. "It said in the contract that they aren't allowed to do that. I'm going to have to make sure the fine print is read the next time."

"Katie!"

"I'm kidding." Katie sat up straight. "So! What are we doing first?"

Kendall stood up. "Actually…I was going to go talk to Dad." Seeing Katie deflate, he pointed over his shoulder. "But James, Carlos, and Logan are going to go jetskiing and I'm sure he's going to get everyone else to go too."

"All right. I'll change into my suit and go over."

"No bikinis," Kendall declared.

Katie looked amused. "You can't tell me what to wear."

"No, but I can make sure I don't have to constantly beat up anyone that looks at you." Katie rolled her eyes and Kendall gave his sister a kiss on the forehead. "I'll see you later, Baby Sister. If Mom wakes up, tell her that I'll see her at dinner."

"OK. See you later."

Kendall left the suite and continued down the hallway towards his father's room. He knocked on the door and had to wait a considerably longer amount of time before the door was flung open and Kevin stood in front of him, hair disheveled and rubbing sleep from his eyes. "Did I interrupt something?" Kendall joked then immediately grimaced, reminded of what Katie had implied before.

Kevin noticed the expression on Kendall's face for he gave him a 'duh' look. "The only thing that gets e hot and heavy at this point in my life is my taxes," he said dryly. "It gets me hot around the collar and I start heavy breathing to keep from wanting to rip my hair out."

"Why don't you just have Katie do it?" Kendall suggested.

"Katie does your taxes?"

"Katie handles all of our money," Kendall snorted. "In fact, she's the one that suggested to Mom that we can't touch any of our money from BTR until we turn twenty-one."

"Because she knew you all wouldn't be responsible?"

"No, because she's a money hungry tyrant that hides her true form behind a cute smile and dimples. I'm only disappointed that she didn't use that talent to go into the Girl Scouts."

Kevin laughed and allowed Kendall in to his suite. Kendall's eyebrows furrowed together when he noticed that his room wasn't as extravagant as everyone else's was. Maybe because it was a single room? For a moment, Kendall felt bad for his father. Not only had he walked out on his family and was trying to navigate through the awkwardness that was trying to get back in their lives, but he must be pretty lonely. He only saw his kids when he ran it by his ex-wife first, the media constantly hounded him with questions about his family, and with the media exposure of having famously quit the hockey league before he went pro had women either chasing after him solely for his fame, or women that he couldn't trust to really be with him.

_Maybe I'm being too hard on him, _Kendall thought.

"So what are you doing here? I figured you'd be on the beach with your friends." Kevin walked over to the couch and sat down, bringing up his legs and resting them on the edge of the coffee table.

The doors to the balcony of his suite were open; bringing a balmy breeze that warmed and cooled the room at the same time. It ruffled Kevin's blond hair and as Kendall got a good look at him, he could suddenly see how tired he was.

A far cry from the energetic man that he remembered, growing up with. Memories of his father being glad to play hockey with him after school filled his head as well as times when the two would go off to get ice cream and rush to eat it before his mother would find out, where he would come home with random souvenirs from the trips he took with his law firm for himself and Katie. No matter how tired Kevin was when he returned home for work he did his best to spend time with his family before retiring to his office to be debriefed for his next trial.

"Actually…I was wondering if you wanted to play golf or something," Kendall suggested.

Kevin looked at him in surprise. "Really?"

"Yeah, I mean. Why not?" Kendall shrugged. "They have, like, eight hundred different courses around here. I'm sure we can find one that we're _moderately_ good at."

Kevin regarded his son for a long, silent moment then turned and placed his gaze on the floor. "Let me ask you something," he said. "Have you told anyone about what I did to you before?" He held up a hand before Kendall could respond. "And I'm not asking because I'm scared of them knowing, I just really want to know. It'd give me piece of mind if you were able to talk to someone about it."

Kendall swallowed thickly. He was afraid this conversation was going to come up. More with his friends than with anyone else. Having it come from his father, when he himself deserved to be the one that confronted Kevin with all of the pain and torment he had felt during those day long practices Kevin pushed him in. It made him hate hockey for a brief moment in his life but nothing trumped the hatred he had felt for Kevin. Not because he was being beaten, but because he stilled loved his father and wanted nothing more than to make him proud, no matter what it took.

"Mom and Katie…I talked to them about it when I was sixteen because I kept having nightmares," Kendall said quietly. "Then I told James, Carlos, and Logan."

"You should tell your best friends, they deserve to know."

Kendall winced slightly. "I told Jo…because she was my girlfriend at the time and I needed someone to vent to…I haven't told Camille, Stephanie, or the Jacksons. I think Gustavo and Kelly and Ronan know from Mom, but I've never actually said it to them myself." Whipping his head around, Kevin regarded his son with surprise. "I know," Kendall said simply, his voice taking on a cold tone. "You don't have to say it."

"Then I won't." Kevin held his hands up to fend off Kendall's verbal blows, taking a step back away from him. As if he was afraid of Kendall. In a way he was. He had the ability to ruin Kevin's life he wanted, he same way he had ruined Kendall's. All he had to do was go to the press and explain everything he had done. If Kendall were anything like Kevin, he could hold a grudge for a long time if not having a bit of a temper when anything around him was threatened. _He's definitely a Knight._ "Were you thinking of playing the whole eighteen? Front nine? Back nine?"

Kendall gave a wry smile. "How about we play until we inevitably get kicked out for damaging too many cars?"

Kevin rubbed his chin. "Yeah, my shots do tend to go a bit wide."

"Like…through the bathroom window."

"In my defense, a glare off of a passing car distracted me."

Kendall chuckled.

Kevin smiled. "Sure. Let me just get my shoes and we can find a place to rent some clubs."

Kendall nodded as Kevin walked out of the main area of the suite style room and into his bedroom. Shoving his hands into his shorts pockets, Kendall angled his head towards his feet as he shuffled them back and forth. Playing gold would be a good way for them to buildup their rapport again, considering how strained things had gotten. Besides, if he was going to be spending eight months in Minnesota with him, they may as well get along.

And maybe, finally, he would be able to talk about how he never felt he was good enough for his father and never would be.

* * *

Carlos finished changing into his swim trunks and grabbed a drawstring bag, stuffing it full with his towel, phone, and his card key to the room. He walked out into the main sitting area and sat down to wait for James and Logan, knowing they were going to take the longest. After having been chased all over the beach by Mama Knight the last time they had been at a beach party, Logan made sure that every square inch of his body was slathered up on sunscreen. James, on the other hand, had numerous creams and liquids to rub on his face and skin to be sure he wouldn't burn, peel, get spots, or winkle prematurely.

He had barely sat down when there was a knock on the door to the room. Going over, he pulled it open and greeted Stephanie with a hug so big that he lifted his taller girlfriend off her feet, squeezing her tight.

"Carlos, you're gonna crack my back," Stephanie managed to wheeze.

Carlos set her back down on the ground and leaned in, giving her a sweet kiss. Feeling something brush against his leg, he glanced down to find her video camera that was almost permanently attached to her hand. "You gonna get some good shots today?"

"I can't think of any better way to get some action shots done," Stephanie said. With a smile she took her boyfriend's hand and allowed herself to be walked over to the couch. She sat down next to him, pulling her legs up underneath her. "And I was itching to go to the beach. Jo and Camille went down to the shops, I think."

"Cool." Carlos gestured towards the bedrooms. "We're just waiting on James and Logan. Kendall went to go see if Mama Knight and Katie were settling in OK. And I'm sure things are going fine because the hotel hasn't fallen apart from Gustavo's screaming yet."

Stephanie laughed. "I don't know how you guys do it, but you somehow always manage to create chaos wherever you go."

"It's a gift." Carlos smiled, but it didn't quite reach his eyes. _We're not going to able to do that much anymore. Not when Kendall leaves and Logan starts going to school and James goes solo…we're going to be split up. _He didn't want to think that they would end up being the kinds of friends that only got together and played catch up during the holidays. They were supposed to be best friends for life, brothers on and off the ice, and a few hours into the vacation and he could tell that dynamic was already starting to change.

Maybe they _wouldn't _be able to handle the future. It used to be so far off but now that it was only months away…

"What's wrong, 'Los?" Stephanie regarded her boyfriend with concern.

Carlos let out a sigh, resting his cheek in his hand. Intense sadness washed over him like a bucket of ice water over his head. "We always said that even though we're going our separate ways that we'll still be as close as ever. But I can already tell that that's not going to happen." He looked at his girlfriend with nothing but sadness in his eyes. "I'm already being left behind."


	9. He Must've Done Something Right

**.:Chapter Nine:.**

* * *

Mrs. Knight didn't know what to do.

Lying back on her hotel bed she gazed at the dress that was hanging on the back of the polished, beach themed armoire that completed the overall theme of the entire hotel. She couldn't deny that the room and the hotel was beautiful, a place she could only imagine in her wildest dreams of being able to go to.

And now here she was, wondering why she was so nervous.

Right. Like she needed to think so hard about that one. Not only had her separated husband made a grand gesture of paying back all of the child support he had managed to skimp out on since he had left, but then he offered to pay for everyone's expenses on a trip to the Bahamas for two weeks. And after having woken up from her nap she had gotten a note to meet him for dinner that night.

What was she supposed to think?

Kendall and Katie had explicitly told her that he had thought about getting back together with her. She had even broken up with Ronan over it because she had been so confused over what to think when he had first come back. Yes, she wanted her kids to be able to have that father figure they had been missing; even Gustavo had his tiny moments of being able to do that for Kendall and Katie. But having their _actual_ father come back…after he had done what he did to her and Kendall…it was hard.

"C'mon Kace, it's just one dinner," she said out loud to herself. "What could possibly go wrong?"

Knowing Kevin, plenty.

As much of a fantastic whirlwind their relationship had been, she remembered he had a habit of making things worse with the simple phrase 'what could go wrong'. A smile stretched across her features as she thought about the time they had planned on going to the Mall of America. As they were leaving the dorm, Kevin was suddenly approached by a teammate and was told that there was an underground concert going on a few cities over. Apparently someone that Kevin had really wanted to see for he immediately turned to her with big, bright eyes—something she now realized Katie had inherited—and suggested they go.

Of course she, being the sensible person that she was, wondered if it was a good idea as it was last minute, they weren't sure they would be getting the tickets, and she had a job she had to get to the next morning. Of course Kevin had convinced her to go—amping up his puppy dog eyes and promising he would take her out two days in a row the next week. She continued to hem and haw, though seriously enjoying the attention he was giving her. Especially considering he had fallen to his knees, grabbed her hands, and started to beg her, which grabbed the attention of anyone that passed by the two of them. Even his hockey buddy had started to smirk at the spectacle.

"Come on, what could go wrong?" Kevin finally uttered those dreaded words.

At the moment she didn't think of how badly he had jinxed them and finally agreed to go along with him. Kevin had beamed and given her a big kiss on the cheek to thank her and off they went. The club was nice and the music was alright. It wasn't until they were going back home that disaster had struck. There was nothing but bumper to bumper traffic and not only that, but there were drunken club goers that had spilled out into the street and were starting to throw cps of beer and trash all over the cars they raced past.

Then, considering they were sitting in a convertible, it had started to rain. Mrs. Knight, who was thoroughly annoyed at that point, merely crossed her arms over her chest and stared straight ahead, trying her hardest not to come out and say "I told you so" when the moment was oh so sweet to do so.

Kevin, on the other hand, pretended that he and his car weren't currently getting soaked and that nothing was going wrong. It wasn't until they had run out of gas only a few miles away from their exit to get back to the university had he finally let out a loud curse and started to rant and rave as he stomped around the car. She had merely sat in the passenger seat, smirking as he continued to pace back and forth, letting out every word of profanity he could remember, even stringing some together in combinations she hadn't heard of before.

If that had been any indication of what was to come later in life, she wished she had thought more of it in that moment. But having the sweet, sweet karmic revenge of ever uttering the words 'what could go wrong?' was apparently too hard to pass up. And she found herself proving to Kevin how those words should never be brought up time and time again. Of course that then was passed along to Kendall, who seemed not to understand the retribution that was bound to happen every time he said them either.

With a sigh, Mrs. Knight got to her feet and walked over to the dress, running her fingers over the fabric. It was a dress she only reserved for special occasions, having to buy more and more as the boys would be invited to different events and award shows. Now she was sure she'd need them for the many press opportunities James was going to have as he was now going solo, the white coat ceremony when Logan became a doctor, whatever events Carlos was going to be doing, and the inevitable time when Kendall would be drafted onto a professional hockey team. The possibilities were endless.

And yet she usually stuck with that black dress simply because of the memories associated with it. Of course Kevin would find something similar to that dress and send it up to her room to be worn to dinner. He was always one to show his love and attention through gestures rather than words; flowers, cards, hugs, hand holding, random kisses out of nowhere…he could be really romantic, made her feel wanted.

The fact he remembered her favorite dress was very telling.

"What am I going to do with you?" She asked herself. She thought about Kendall and Katie in that moment. They were spending the night, hanging out with their friends, running along to whatever event the hotel could offer to them. As much as she understood how anxious they were about Kevin being so close again, they didn't understand that they only knew their father as their father, not as a person as Mrs. Knight knew.

They didn't know him as he was growing up, what he was like in college, what he was like up to and when they were married, when they were born. All of the moments before everything fell apart. He doted on his children and then made the biggest mistake that she could never get over. It was something she still wondered about herself.

If she took him back, would things really change?

Interrupted by a rapid knock at the door, Mrs. Knight stepped out of her room and walked through the sitting area until she reached the front door. Grasping the seashell doorknob, she twisted it open and found no one in the doorway. Stepping out, she looked around before turning her gaze to the floor, where a small, velvet box rested by her feet. Bending down, she picked it up in her hand and opened it.

Resting on the pillow in the center of the case was a tiny pearl on the end of a string. She knew for sure that her husband hadn't given her that necklace. He didn't know that her favorite kinds of necklaces or other points of jewelry were the pearl. He gave her diamonds and sapphires and rubies when the occasion came, but not pearls.

Mrs. Knight smiled to herself as she took the box into the room. Carefully lifting the necklace out of the box, she let it dangle from her fingertips. It twisted this way and that, caught by the lights that reflected from the open window and the lights that were on. "That's so sweet," she murmured.

And then she felt her heart drop.

She had gotten a pearl necklace from Ronan and she was about to gout to dinner with her husband. The former she still had love for, where he would always hold a special place in her heart, no matter how angry she could be with him. The other being one of her great friends, someone who understood her, who understood how difficult being a single parent in the music industry was, who had similar values, and could make her feel relaxed in any situation that came up.

And she thought Kendall's love triangle plight was a bit comical, especially considering it had happened to him twice, if not three times, with the same girls involved. Though if she really thought about it, it was more like a love arrow.

Now being in one herself, she realized how unfunny, confusing, and anxiety inducing the situation really was.

_"Just give me a chance to try and explain things. A night where we can talk things out and hopefully have things get to normal. That's all I'm asking."_

She had been right to be hesitant on the answer.

Still, she found herself taking a quick shower, putting on some makeup, and heading down to the hotel lobby to meet up with Kevin before they went to the restaurant sitting by an aquarium. If there was one thing Kevin had a talent for, apart from hockey, it was making grand gestures.

"Hey Kace."

Mrs. Knight turned around to see Ronan strolling towards her, hands in the pockets of his slacks. She regarded him with surprise before smiling, finding that she was happy to see him. "Hi." She leaned forward and wrapped an arm around his shoulders, giving him a quick hug. "What are you doing here?"

"Oh, Gustavo, Kelly, and I were just about to head out to a show," Ronan said, pointing over his shoulder. "You can't hear him yet, but Gustavo has been ranting and raving about not wanting to see this one. Apparently he had something against sharks?" He shrugged. "But Kelly really wanted to go see it and I needed to be able to do something fun while my kids are out of my hair for once."

Giving him a sly smile, Mrs. Knight crossed her arms. "Come on, you know you like having them around."

"Up until they break everything in sight and make my blood pressure sky rocket, yeah," Ronan agreed. The two laughed and he spread his stance, moving his hands behind his back. A pose of relaxation that she had noticed him doing since she met him, despite his lack of having been in the military. Ronan's green eyes dipped over her body. "Well you look amazing, what's the occasion?"

"I'm—"Subconsciously, she reached a hand up to the pearl necklace she had put on around her neck. His eyes followed her movement but he didn't say anything otherwise. "I'm meeting Kevin for dinner," she finally explained.

"Oh." Ronan nodded, shifting uncomfortably for a moment. His gaze lowered to the floor and when he looked up at her once more, he gave her a tight-lipped smile. "Have a great time. I heard the food here is really good." He then shrugged. "Plus, it's even better that you're not paying for it." Mrs. Knight reached out and shoved him on the shoulder. "What? I know you were thinking about it too."

"Yeah, well, that's Kevin for you," she said with a slight sigh. "He's a great guy, but sometimes I think he prefers the flash to everything else." She ran a hand through her hair, eyebrows twitching. "You should've seen him when he was still playing hockey. If I didn't know he was so in love with the sport, I'd think he was only in love with the attention he received."

"He must've done something right, he got you didn't he?"

Ronan's words halted Mrs. Knight. She couldn't find the right words to try and redeem herself. But nothing came to mind. She could hear the slight sense of hurt in his voice, though he did a great job of hiding it. _He really has been spending a lot of time with his kids, _she thought. They were masters when it came to hiding what they really felt as well as keeping people out. Something it seemed like he was starting to master himself.

"Have a good time at your dinner," Ronan said. He took a step back and started to move away, but Mrs. Knight's voice stopped him in his tracks.

"Thank you…for the necklace," she said. Reaching up she gently held the pearl against her palm. She studied Ronan's face as he turned to face her. His eyes moved to the tiny pearl and recognition slid through his bottle green irises before he smiled. "It's really beautiful." She dropped it against her neck once more. "I don't know what to say."

"Don't," he replied. Reaching out, he gently adjusted it around her neck, his fingers moving against her skin, causing her to flush almost as red as her hair. "You don't have to say anything. I was going to give it to you for your birthday. But…" he trailed off, bringing his hands back down. Mrs. Knight found that she missed the feeling as soon as he stopped touching her.

She mentally slapped herself. How pathetic was that. She opened her mouth to say something, and then stopped, turning at the sound of rustling leaves. She spotted the bushes behind her then glanced over at the front door of the lobby where a young family had just walked through the door.

That made sense…but she could've sworn she saw some individual branches moving out of the corner of her eye. Turning back to Ronan she found that his gaze had been moved to the bushes, eyes narrowed as well. After a beat he turned back to Mrs. Knight and took a step back, his eyes shifting to the other side this time. Twisting the other way, Mrs. Knight watched as Kevin strolled over to the two of them.

He blinked in surprise for a moment then gave Ronan a warm smile. "Hey Ronan, it's good to see you," Kevin said as he came to a stop between the couple. "Are you enjoying the hotel?"

"I am, actually," Ronan agreed. "It really feels like we're living in a fishbowl or something." He gently shook his head. "You should've seen Sydney; as soon as his bags were unpacked he raced off to the nearest aquarium, leaving everyone else to sleep. It was the quietest I've ever heard them, so I have to thank you for that, man."

Kevin laughed. "You're very welcome. I understand what it's like to have a bunch of rambunctious kids." He shook his head. "Kinda makes me wish I never taught Kendall how to play hockey, you'd be surprised at how many times he managed to blast a hole into the walls."

Mrs. Knight snorted. Kevin had found the holes in the walls to be funny, he wasn't the one that had consistently found them and had to deal with the tears that Kendall had reduced himself too, to make himself appear more innocent. It was the only time in her entire life she had called up her husband while he was working and actually uttered the words 'you won't believe what _your_ son did today'.

"Well, you two have a great time at dinner," Ronan said once he stopped laughing. "I'll see you at brunch tomorrow." He turned away then snapped his fingers, turning back to the two, addressing Kevin. "Just don't be surprised if some sort of a food fight breaks out. This group is famous for them."

"I'll take your word for it." Kevin watched as Ronan nodded and walked away from the two, further to the side of the lobby. Gustavo, being dragged by Kelly, arrived out of the elevator seconds later, their voices echoing throughout the lobby. Ronan said something sarcastic to the two, causing Kelly to smack him not he arm and Gustavo to laugh. Their voices mingled together before they disappeared out the front door of the lobby.

And Mrs. Knight felt herself longing to go with them.

"C'mon." Kevin nudged her arm. "It's almost time for our reservations."

Mrs. Knight nodded and clutched her purse tighter against her front, heels clacking as he followed her husband into the restaurant. The hostess walked them over to one of the tables sitting directly beside a tank. Brightly colored, tropical fish swam by, hovering around and bringing an array of colors and ambience to the otherwise dimmed place.

"And this is the least spectacular restaurants here," Kevin said as he sat down, watching Mrs. Knight study the fish. "Makes me wonder what all of the other ones look like."

"I'll say," Mrs. Knight agreed. She placed her purse on the floor and turned to her husband. "How was golfing with Kendall today?"

Kevin nodded. "Really good, actually. Once we got out there things loosened up a lot between us. I'm glad things are starting to go back to normal." He shrugged. "As normal as can be anyway. Back to when we were going shopping for his hockey gear and everything. That was fun."

"A little birdie told me that Katie really got into it," Mrs. Knight said with a smile. She pointed at him. "I don't know about you, but I think you should've taught her how to play hockey rather than just Kendall."

"Nah, you know Katie, she doesn't' want to do exactly what her big brother does. That's why she liked the idea of field hockey. How's that going anyway?"

"She got kicked off the team."

Kevin looked surprised. "Really? How?"

A half smile graced Mrs. Knight's lips. "Overly aggressive," She said. "The referees said they didn't think she understood what sportsmanship was. That was the same thing she was told about the lacrosse team, too. I have to say that I was proud of her though. It shows she can really stand her ground when the time comes."

Nodding Kevin turned to the menu that was resting by his side. An air of sadness had started to develop him. Mrs. Knight suddenly felt badly for him. Not only had he left his family, but he had missed out on so many milestones that she had wished he could've been around for. While they had little to no interaction while he was gone, at least he had called on her birthday and their anniversary to talk a little. The conversations never went well, but at least he remembered those days. He never overstepped his boundaries by sending gifts or saying anything more than 'happy birthday', 'happy anniversary' or 'how are the kids doing'. He could feel the tension radiating from her side of the phone and knew it wasn't the time to try and come back.

"I hoped she would turn out that way," Kevin finally said. "Like her mother." He smiled up at her then his smile faded. "Kace…I know things are awkward but I really do want to change. I know that people are skeptical about it, I can see the glares that James, Carlos, and Logan give me each and every time I come around. I can see how hurt Kendall is, no matter how hard he tried to hide it. I can see that Katie is torn on how to feel and I feel terribly for everything that brought that up."

Mrs. Knight slowly nodded.

"And I am trying to show that I can be there for them." He leaned towards her. "I've been following Kendall's career since he got out here. I was there, in the very back of the venue when it was their first concert out in LA."

Mrs. Knight's eyes widened. "Really?"

"Yes. And…I was the one that convinced Griffin to take Gustavo's offer of selling and handing over his mansions so Gustavo could keep Big Time Rush as a band after the news broke that their first concert was going to be cancelled."

Her mouth dropped open. She _had _thought it was sort of strange that Griffin had willingly taken that deal. Knowing the massive—in physique—and slightly wacky CEO, she figured it would've taken a lot more than the money from five mansions to get him to hand over Big Time Rush when they had done nothing but continue to bring in success for him. And as he had proven, Kevin did have contacts with people in higher places if not having worked on high profile cases.

With a sigh, she ran a hand through her hair; thinking about the trial that he had taken that brought him back into their lives full force. He had been representing a case about child abuse…and the person he was defending was the abuser and the Jacksons' foster father at the time and it brought along some of their friends to testify, including Kendall. She didn't understand why he hadn't been released from the job considering conflict of interest.

Especially considering he had gone done the same thing.

It threw Kendall for a loop and nearly gave him a complete mental breakdown for a while, but then he had sucked it up and testified. She was sure Kendall was talking directly to Kevin at that point. And he had appeared to have thought about his actions afterwards for he went to the Jacksons and congratulated them on their win before going on his way. It wasn't until the past year that he had come back and had really shown them that he was really going to try and salvage their relationship did they get better.

_And to think him beating Kendall in that hockey game did it, _Mrs. Knight mused. _As much as Kendall hates to lose it was probably what had given him a big wakeup call if not a bit of respect for his father on a hockey level._

"Uh-oh, you're quiet again," Kevin said, leaning back. "That's never good for me. The last time you were quiet you kicked me out." Mrs. Knight opened her mouth to protest, but Kevin raised his hand. "It was justified, I can admit that now. I made a huge mistake and I made it worse when I didn't listen to what you had to say, acted selfishly, and left everything behind because I had too much pride to admit you were right."

She slowly blinked. "That's the first time you've said that."

"You never gave me the chance. Which I don't blame you for, either. You just really wanted to protect Kendall and Katie." Kevin started to play with his fork. "Too bad you couldn't have done that when we were playing golf."

Panic struck Mrs. Knight as she sat up straight. "You didn't get chased by security did you?"

"No…ore like accidentally hit too many guests with golf balls. But it's their own fault that they don't know what the word 'fore' mean."

"Most people would use 'duck' or 'look out'."

"And that proves you're not a real golfer."

Mrs. Knight laughed, bringing her hair back behind her shoulders. She reached out and picked up her menu. "Let's get something to eat before someone realizes I'm here. You have no idea, but the fans can find us easily now. They even have ScuttleButter accounts dedicated to me and Katie. And I don't do anything other than tell the boys when to go to bed."

"They have good taste then."

Instead of replying, Mrs. Knight picked up her menu and hid behind it. Her eyes moved over the different options of appetizers and entrees. Around her she could hear the soft clinking of silverware against dishes accompanying the soft jazz music being played and the sound of trickling water from the tank beside them.

"Thanks for agreeing to come out with me tonight, Kace," Kevin said sincerely.

Mrs. Knight smiled at him. "You're welcome."

And throughout the rest of the night she found that she was having a really good time and that she was the most confused she had ever been.

* * *

**A/N: **The pace picks up after this chapter; I feel it's been moving a bit slow. You'll see more from Ronan's POV as well. Hopefully chapters will be a smidge longer also

Cheers,

-Riles


	10. A Little Blonde Girl's Gonna Kick My Ass

**.:Chapter Ten:.**

* * *

"Jo, we're going to brunch, not the front row of New York Fashion Week," Stephanie said as she kicked her long legs back and forth as they hung over the side of the bed. She watched as Jo changed out of a light sundress and into a pair of capris and a nice looking blouse.

"I just want to look good," Jo defended herself, turning back to the mirror and lightly tugging at her blouse to be sure it fell into place.

Stephanie and Camille exchanged a glance and Camille chuckled as she flipped her hair over her shoulders. "Yeah, you're not dating Kendall anymore, who do you need to impress?"

Rhuben, who was sitting in a rocking chair in the corner of the room, smirked. "She's been spending wayyy too much time with James. Now all she cares about is how she looks at every given moment." She crossed her leg at the knee. "Why do you think she insisted on going to the mall before we left?"

"Uh, because there were about a hundred sales going on," Camille replied. "We couldn't pass that up."

"And yet, Jo managed to buy practically everything and _still _can't find anything to wear," Riley said. She was sitting at the head of the bed with Stephanie, slouched down, legs crossed at the knee. "God forbid there's a sudden shortage of cotton in the world." She laughed as the dress that Jo had on before was thrown onto her head.

Stephanie fell into laughter along with Camille and Rhuben before she let out a quiet sigh, bringing her knees up to her chest. "I'm starting to think that might not've been a good idea to come out here," she said. Jo's eyebrows rose. "I'm not saying that the hotel isn't nice, because it's cool. I just think…having Mr. Knight pay for everything is really weird. And not only that, but it's kind of awkward, watching him, Kendall, Katie, and Mrs. Knight try to work things out with all of us here."

"I get what you mean," Camille agreed. "I don't mind being able to see a place as fancy as this…but it's definitely not the way to go when it comes to getting back in the good graces with his family." She peered at the African-American girl. "That's not the only thing you're worried about though, is it?"

Stephanie shrugged.

With a sigh, Riley reached out and put her arm around her taller friend's shoulders. "Alright, Steph, what's going on?"

"It's just something Carlos said to me," Stephanie said. She then explained Carlos's worries about the guys not being friends anymore after they finished up their summer tour and went their separate ways. "Most of the time I would say that he was being a bit sensitive about the whole thing, but what if he's right?" Jo, Camille, Riley, and Rhuben all made noises of surprise and outrage. "No, think about it! After the guys are done with their stuff, what's keeping all of us together? Kendall's going back to Minnesota, James is going solo, Logan is going to study to become a doctor, Carlos is going to do…whatever,"—she waved a hand—"It's like…we're all graduating high school."

"Steph, we _have _graduated from high school," Jo pointed out.

"And we're all going our separate ways into whatever our version of 'college' is." Stephanie used air quotes around the words. "Soon enough time is going to go buy and everyone's going to be so busy that we won't stay in contact anymore."

"That's not going to happen," Rhuben insisted, shaking her head. "We've all been through too much to even _think_ of it." Tilting her head to the side, she regarded Stephanie with a raised eyebrow. "Though, you do have a point."

"Rhu!" Jo protested.

Rhuben held up her hand. "I just mean that she had a point that we're all going on to do our separate things now. I mean, you and Camille are actresses, it's only a matter of time until you get a massive movie and go on to win Oscars and forget about us little people." She pretended to wipe away a tear and collapsed into laughter when Camille grabbed a pillow off the bed and whipped it at her.

"Don't worry about it, Steph," Riley said. "If we know the guys as well as we do, they'll do their best to make sure no one is left behind. Even if we go to different places, Christmas isn't going to be same without all of us together."

"I guess you're right." Stephanie picked up her video camera from the bedside table. "Besides, considering how much I've already gotten on tape,"—she swung the view finder over to Jo—"we can always watch this later and remember how long it took for Jo to get dressed for a stupid brunch."

"OK! OK! I get the point," Jo said. She finally turned from the mirror and stepped into her shoes before placing her hands on her hips. "Let's go before you guys keep making fun of me and I'll have to use my judo skills on you."

"I'm shaking in my boots," Riley said sarcastically. "A little blonde girl is going to kick my ass." She let out a shriek of surprise as the blonde girl reached out and lifted her up into her arms. "You better not body slam me. I've gotten enough of that from my brothers to last a lifetime."

"Don't mess with me and I won't."

Stephanie rolled off of the bed and followed her friends out of the room, Jo still carrying Riley as they went. She laughed along with them as she accidentally banged Riley's feet into the side of the elevator as the doors opened. And as much as she tried not to focus on the impending future hey wre all going to face as the summer tour got closer, Stephanie wondered if it really was her and Carlos that were the only ones that were scared about losing their friends.

Because no matter how hard they all tried to fight it, changing friendships were inevitable.

* * *

"Katie, don't you think we should get going? We're going to miss brunch."

"No, thank you."

Katie ignored Lizzie's harsh stare into the side of her head as she stood up and walked over to the next tide pool, bending over to look into it. In front of her, Patrick, Noah, and Sydney were kneeling over another tide pool, watching as crabs scuttled back and forth through the water. "I'm not hungry anyway."

"You mean you don't want to see your Dad," Patrick contradicted his girlfriend. He sat back, brushing sand off his knees.

Katie scowled at him. "Don't you have a wave to go surf or something?" With that, she smoothed down the back of her shorts and sat down on a rock, stretching out her legs. She glanced at the purple nail polish that was starting to chip off. She was going to have to get them redone. _Dad's paying for everything, why don't you just have him pay for this too? _She crossed her arms, looking out at the water. It was still pretty early in the morning, about ten or so, but there were still those that dotted the water, taking on as many waves as they could, even though it was still relatively flat.

"If I wanted to, I wouldn't be here right now," Patrick replied. He didn't seem to mind the sudden hostility in her tone. Nudging his brothers, he stood up and dusted sand off of his hands before the three went over to join the two girls.

"Katie, if you didn't want to see him, then why did you come on this trip?" Noah asked gently, sitting on Lizzie's other side. He leaned forward, encircling his legs with his arms. Katie's scowl deepened. "I'm not attacking you, Kates, I'm just asking."

And still Katie wasn't even really sure why she decided to go. There was nothing but hesitation on her part when the plane had lifted off the runway and was in the air. She wanted to find some sort of excuse to turn around and go back to the apartment and continue packing so she could move out and get it all over with. Her brother was leaving, the guys were leaving, why did everything have to change all at once? Things were just fine when they would go to see her father every now and then when he wasn't too busy working on some sort of case. Things weren't awkward then, they went somewhere, hung out, talked a little, slowly worked out their relationship. But noooo, he just had to go and push his luck.

Now every piece of planning that she, Kendall, and the Jacksons did to try and put her mother and Ronan back together wasn't working. Not even stealing the necklace that Ronan was going to give her for her birthday and leaving it for her outside of the room had worked. Ronan easily took the blame for it, acting like he _knew _he had given it to her and still left as she was going to dinner with Kevin. It wasn't until earlier that morning, as Patrick, Noah, and Sydney explained it, that he had confronted his kids about it, demanding that they stay out of his business, no matter how hard they were trying to help him.

Of course that wasn't going to stop them. But they understood his worries.

"It's because she's trying to overcompensate for the relationship that she didn't have with him before," Sydney said before Katie could reply. He dropped his magnifying glass to the sand and shrugged when all eyes turned to him. "Think of it this way, who has Kevin been spending most of his attention on? Kendall. Who is the one that he's trying his hardest to get into the good graces of? Kendall. And Katie's starting to feel left out because it's like he can't seem to find anything that will incorporate her into his world as well."

_Why does he have to be so smart? _Katie scowled and got to her feet again, leaping off of the rock and stomping away from the group. She could hear Sydney's bewildered cry of "what did I say?" behind her as she continued up the beach. _Better yet, why do I have to be so easy to read? _She could feel her frustration start to swirl within her again. This was a vacation that she dreamed she could go on. As much as she hated the beach and the sand, she knew how many celebrities and entertainers liked to go to the resort to get some time to themselves and away from their fans. She would've been able to get a jump start on her career as a talent manager after that brief stint with Russell Brand. She needed more contacts and the Atlantis resort would've been perfect.

But no.

Everything had to be ruined.

"Katie! Stop!" Glancing behind her, Katie could see Patrick jogging towards her, coming to a stop, slightly out of breath, next to her. "You know he didn't mean to make you mad. Syd's just like a faucet sometimes, as soon as he figures out something, he has to tell everyone."

"It's not that," Katie grumbled, kicking up sand as she kept going. "It was that he was right."

"About?" Reaching out, he grabbed onto Katie's arm and jerked her to a stop. "Seriously, if you keep running hot like that, I'm sure you're going to leave diamonds in your wake." He gave her his famous lopsided smile. "Though knowing you, you'd use it to harvest and charge a fortune in re-selling."

Katie giggled lightly, crossing her arms over her chest. "Actually, the money would be in turning it into jewelry as opposed to the resale. Especially the percentages I'd get from that because it's almost time for holidays."

Patrick rolled his eyes. "Whatever, Katie. I'm sure you can draw up some sort of legal plan for it within the next few minutes but that's not my point." He moved his hand from her arm down to hers, lacing his fingers together with hers. In moments like that she normally would've turned a bright red or smiled lie a loon, always enjoying being able to hold her boyfriend's hand. But now it actually make her want to cry. It was comforting in a way that made her realize how badly things were going for her.

"So what is your point?" She asked.

Patrick looked confused for a moment then looked down at his feet before scratching the back of his head with his free hand. "Actually, I don't remember what it is now."

Katie giggled again. He always made her laugh even when she didn't want to. "Thanks, but that didn't make me feel better," she said. The two stood in silence for a while then Katie took a deep breath. "Pat…when you look at my Dad, what do you see?"

"A guy that's just as upset about money as you are," Patrick said almost immediately.

_Well, I guess that's something I have in common with him. Though he's more likely to spend it than I am, _Katie thought. "No, I mean. When it comes to _looking _at him, what do you see?" Patrick shifted his feet as he thought about it. "Kendall, right?" He shrugged. "Do you see anything about him in me? His eyes or his smile or something?"

Patrick blinked. "Is that what you're worried about?"

Dropping his hand from hers, Katie turned away from him. He was a good listener and very perceptive, and could be very understanding. But this was one thing he _couldn't _understand. "Why doesn't he want to have a relationship with me too? Does he even notice that I'm not at brunch? The only time he really wants to spend time with me is when Kendall's around. It's like he doesn't like me or something. So why should I bother to put in the time if he's not going to try and do it for me?"

"He cares, Katie, just…not in the way you think," Patrick said gently, following after her once more.

"Well that makes me feel a whole lot better," Katie grumbled. There was a sudden gust of wind that blew sand into Katie's face. "Gah! I hate the beach! Why did he have to come here?!" She frantically tried to wipe the grains of sand away from her eyes as they teared up. Patrick stepped up in front of her and used the bottom of his shirt to brush the sand from her eyes. "Thanks," she grumbled. She wished she could tell him why she was so upset by everything. That she was as afraid for Kendall and her mother as she was for her own relationship with her father. That, realistically, it probably wouldn't take long for Kevin to revert back to the way he had been before.

But she couldn't.

Not when Kendall made her promise not to and not when it would shake things up to the point where it might ruin everything between everyone before they all went their separate ways.

"Honestly, I think you're going to regret it if you don't go to brunch," Patrick said, lowering his shirt. He moved his hands up to cup her cheeks. "You want to have a relationship with your father, but if you don't make an effort, or at least don't try and meet him half way, then it's not going to happen."

Katie gave him a wry smile. "You just want to eat," she accused him.

Patrick grinned. "What do you expect? I was woken up early this morning by _you _and skipped breakfast. Unless you want to see me turn into some sort of monster, you'd give me something to eat."

"I don't know, you without your hair gel is pretty scary. I'd hate to see how much worse you can get." Her eyes moved over the shoulder length black hair that dusted his shoulders, moving into his face when the wind blew again. She let out a sigh. "Thanks for trying to make me feel better, Pat. But…I don't know, with him…I don't think it's possible."

"Or that you're dwelling too much on the past."

Katie gave him a funny look.

"I know, I know, coming from me, that's like, a slap in the face," Patrick said. He paused. "But think of it this way, the last time he saw you, you were three or so, right?" She nodded. "So he only remembers you as a three year old. He doesn't know you as the girl you are now. So let him see that." Katie nodded and Patrick leaned in, giving her a kiss on the cheek. "Now, can we get some food, please?"

"Fine." Katie laughed. "We wouldn't want you to pass out." Patrick beamed and let out a cheer causing Katie to laugh for real this time. He then put his arm around her shoulders and the two started to walk back over to their friends, who were waiting for them.

Katie thought about what he said. Let her father see the girl that she had turned out to be, not the girl he remembered.

_Easy for him to say, _she thought. _He doesn't know the whole story. _"Shouldn't Julius and Brittany be here by now?" She asked, speaking of his eldest sibling and his wife.

"Yes ,actually," Patrick replied, glancing at his watch. He had to pull Katie closer to him to see the face and she was sure he had done it on purpose, which made her blush. "I think their plane got in last night, or early this morning depending on how you want to look at it."

"How's marriage life going for them?" She pressed.

"So good that it's actually disgusting. We're all really happy for them." His voice was lighthearted and held excitement, the same way it always was when he got to see his big brother, but his eyes didn't hold the same light. "Lucky him."

_What does that mean? _Katie wondered, but didn't ask.

There was already enough drama starting to brew, she didn't want to add to it.

* * *

**A/N: **Ronan's POV has been moved to the next chapter. You're going to see more of the other characters (Sydney, Noah, Julius, Brittany, Lizzie, Gustavo, Kelly, Dak, and WayneWayne) as the story goes on. I just wanted to get a few things out of the way first.

Cheers,

-Riles


	11. You Would Understand Me A Little

**.:Chapter Eleven:.**

* * *

"Seriously, guys, you have to stop." Ronan placed his hands on his hips his eyes moving over his kids as they sat quietly in front of him. "Mrs. Knight and I have broken up. And while I know that you're just trying to help, forcing us back together and doing your crazy little plans to try and make it look like a coincidence isn't going to help things." He started to turn away and then turned back, eyes narrowed. "And where did you find that necklace?"

Sydney crossed his arms over his chest, leaning back in his seat. "In your underwear drawer back home," he replied. "You know, you really have to find better places to hide your things."

"Or I have to lock my door."

"That won't help either, we can get through those easy," Patrick piped up. At Ronan's harsh glare—which proved that he spent too much time with them—the bassist slid lower in his seat, his butt almost falling off the edge. Patrick fumbled with his glasses before pushing it up his nose. "But, you know, I'm sure there's one out there, _somewhere_, that we can't get through."

Ronan smiled a little. He tilted his head to the side and let out a quiet sigh. "Guys, listen, you don't have to worry about what's going on." He sat down in the leather armchair and crossed his legs. "It's not like we're not still friends and there's still a chance that we can still get back together."

Noah scratched the back of his neck before flicking his hair out of his eyes with a quick swoop of his head. "But don't you reckon there's a chance that Mama Knight and Kevin could get back together, though?" He shrugged. "They were married before, yeah?"

"And that isn't any of yours or our business either," Ronan said firmly. "What happened between them, what they choose to share anyway, is all they want us to know. And you need to stop meddling." He held up a hand. "Which I know is not your strong suit to listen when people tell you 'no'."

"Because it's fun," Riley said as if it was obvious. She bit her lip and turned away when Ronan turned his glare onto her. Like her brother, she seemed to shrink in her chair. Her adoptive father seeming to be the only one with the ability to do that. "It's not that fun."

Ronan laughed and ran his hands over his face once more. He was starting to get a headache. It was the first few days they had been on vacation and already he was starting to wonder if it was a good idea to go. Normally that didn't happen until about the last day of a trip, when he would inevitably be getting a screaming phone call from Gustavo or the hotel staff over some crazy scheme that had gone wrong or some sort of damage that had been done to the hotel. Now that it was his own problem he wasn't really sure how to deal with it. Which was really putting a damper on his normally laid-back and chill attitude.

"Why don't you guys go find your friends and find something to do," he suggested. "Julius and Brittany are still asleep and they'll probably join you later."

"What are you going to do?" Rhuben stood up from the floor, brushing off the seat of her pants. She glanced at her adoptive father in concern. She had never seen him frown so much, he was usually smiling and enjoying what life had to offer for him.

Ronan smirked at her. "Bask in my own peace and quiet for as long as I can before Kelly calls me and begs me to help her deal with Gustavo."

"Ouch," Noah said with a hint of offense in his tone.

A laugh escaped the older man as he reached out and ruffled his son's hair. "Remember when he ran rampant around the Palm Woods after he started to have fun?" The Jacksons all nodded. "Apparently it's worse when he's on a real vacation."

"Ooh." The low murmur came from the raven haired siblings. They remembered when Gustavo had basically run Kendall, Logan, Carlos, and James up the wall with his antics, trying to relive a lost childhood. The best thing that came out of it was that they had met Stephanie and Big Time Rush had created a great song, the worst thing that came out of it was knowing how wild and crazy Gustavo could _really _get.

Who wanted to go through that again?

"So we're going to steer clear of Gustavo today," Riley declared, her siblings agreeing before the Jacksons left the suite as quietly as they could. As soon as the door closed behind them, Ronan turned in the seat of the chair and draped his legs over the arm. Letting out a long sigh he closed his eyes, trying to get some sleep.

Of course it didn't come easy to him, not for the fact that he actually wasn't completely _used _to complete silence, not after having met the Jacksons about ten years before, but because it seemed like the time that every significant relationship he had wanted to playback in his head.

The first one had been when he first got into the music industry while interning at a record company during his first two years at university. Sophia, who was interning at the same place, had been his exact opposite, a really serious girl that took everything in her life up to ten in the point that she wanted it to be perfect. He was, and still is, a guy that liked everything to be laid back and chilled out. If something happened it happened and he enjoyed every minute out of life. It shouldn't have worked out, the two of them together, but there was some basis in opposite attract that had brought them together. They had only broken up because they didn't have a lot of time to spend together due to their work, but it was a relationship he could never forget.

Then in his last two years of university it had been Krista, who was a girl any guy could want. She enjoyed living life to the fullest and had taken him on many adventures as the ones he had taken her on. But living life was her passion and he couldn't keep up with her as she constantly wanted to travel and immerse herself in whatever opportunity came her way. Their breakup had been amicable and he was sure they could've possibly gotten married if they ever reconnected, but she was always hard to get in touch with. Even when they bumped into each other here or there it was in the middle of a break before taking another trip to some exotic country.

Then there had been Ellie, he had absolutely fallen in love with her and their relationship had been a whirlwind from start to finish. He had started to hit the big time by becoming the youngest music producer to produce a series of songs that continued to top the charts at number one and she had been by his side throughout the change in his life and continuing career. Then after having met the Jacksons and starting to work with them, having become their friend, she had started to change a little. He refused to note it, but his friends and the Jacksons easily had, stating that she was only using him for his money. Blinded by his love he didn't see it for a while, but then after having had the tabloids dig even further into his relationship, which was something he always hated, it started to come to light. Then, after having established a great friendship with the Jacksons he had asked them point blank about it, and they all unanimously stated she was a gold digger. Seeing it then, after a few more dates to be sure, he kicked her to the curb, not long after having proposed to her.

That had delivered him a tough blow and for a while he hadn't dated or thought about it. But when he started again, that was when the Jacksons started to drive off each and every one they didn't think was good enough for him. Then he had met and started working with Kacy Knight and things had fallen into place. Their differing lifestyles had made conversation interesting yet they still had some similarities that kept things interesting. Plus having her be new in the music industry, working as a manager to a newly formed band allowed himself to talk to someone about his passion and he think he brought out some of that in her, if not made it a bit easier to understand. He knew he was dealing with the potentiality of a relationship pretty quickly and had been hesitant only because of her children, knowing there was a father somewhere. She had been open about her relationship with Kevin that had even surprised him, and now here he was on a great vacation that was being funded by her ex-husband.

It was so surreal that he wanted to laugh about it sometimes. And as much as he believed in the fact that everything happened for a reason and if good things were meant to happen they would, it was starting to make him wonder if he should give up or still hope that things would work out for him in the end.

Ronan was startled awake by the sound of someone knocking on the door. Considering it wasn't a constant banging sound and that he couldn't hear voices on the other end, he knew it wasn't Gustavo, Kelly, or any of the kids. For a fleeting moment he was afraid that it would be Kacy. As much as he enjoyed spending time with her, things had gotten awkward between the two of them and that was the last thing he wanted to deal with again. Brunch was strange; no one really talked much because it felt like everyone was trying their hardest to keep a secret, to not let anything slip. Julius and Brittany were the only ones that had a lot to say that and was only due to them talking about what they had been through since anyone had seen them last, which was for their wedding the year before.

And while Kacy had engaged the two of them with their current life, she didn't say much to Kevin or to Ronan or even to Gustavo or Kelly, while the adults would usually be talking and laughing just as much as the teenagers around them.

Reaching the door, Ronan first checked through the peephole to be sure it wasn't a fan that had somehow found his hotel room—as they were known to do—before opening the door. Kevin turned away from the framed painting that was hanging on the wall beside the door and nodded at Ronan.

The music producer nodded back. "Kevin," he said in greeting. "What's up? Please don't tell me that Kendall, Logan, Carlos, or James is being held by hotel security."

Surprise flashed over Kevin's face. "That's happened before?"

"More than anyone would ever like to imagine," Ronan replied. "And that's not including the story they keep telling about being recruited for MI6. They have such an imagination though, I'll give them that." He shuffled his feet. "What are you doing here?" He asked again.

"I wanted to talk to you, actually," Kevin replied. Ronan made a snorting sound, slightly turning his head away. "Though I wouldn't blame you if you didn't want to. I just feel that I need to explain myself a little bit."

Ronan took a step back and allowed Kevin to enter the hotel room. He closed the door behind the former hockey player and walked him over to the living room. Presenting him with the living room, Ronan sat down in the leather chair once more and crossed his legs, leaned back, and crossed his arms as well.

"First and foremost, as a father, I want to commend you for what you've done with your life," Kevin said, causing Ronan's eyebrows to rise in interest. "Not many people would be willing to adopt six children at once and you've obviously been doing a great job raising each of them. Having gone form a bachelor to a father isn't easy and it shows that you really do care about them."

"Thank you," Ronan said. He gave a half smile. "Of course there are times where all I want is to have time to myself, but having them around has definitely made my life that more interesting."

"I felt the same way when Kendall and Katie were born," Kevin admitted. He was silent for a long moment, looking down at his hands as they were clasped together, resting against his legs. Leaning forward, he unclasped his hands and ran a hand through his hair. "I was so excited to know I was going to be a father, especially knowing that I was going to be having a son _and _a daughter. It's what motivated me to continue to play as hard as I could when on the ice. So I knew I would be able to provide for them any way I could."

"What about when you were on the road?" Ronan asked. "There are as many away games as home games."

"Kacy would come with me in the earlier months of her pregnancy with Kendall," Kevin explained. He chuckled. "In fact, she did everything she could to make sure that she wouldn't stay on bed rest because she can never sit still as it is." His smile faded and a haunted look came to his eyes. "Then she did the same when pregnant with Katie. Having had her three years after Kendall, it was easier to bring him around to watch me play. It was after she was born that things started to become difficult."

"Having to take care of a toddler and an infant isn't ever easy," Ronan pointed out. A hard edge came to his tone. "Not being that much younger that my older brother, my mother had the same problem. But there were still sacrifices that had to be made."

"And it was when I found that it would be even more difficult for me to continue to play that I started to become selfish," Kevin continued. "In fact I was a little angry because I was only a few games away from being scouted into the NHL. I had scouts coming to all of my games and they were looking at me more so than any other player. Once I knew it would be next to impossible to continue to train, play, and travel as much as I had, because of Katie having been born so close to Kendall, I had become even angrier. My dreams were close to being realized, it would bring nothing but a comfortable life for all of us.

"Kacy and I fought about that a lot. Especially considering we had only really talked about having children a few times before in our relationship. We both knew we wanted to have children but with the plans both of us had for our future, they didn't always fit." Kevin licked his lips. "I think that Kace really resents me because she wasn't able to do what she really wanted."

"To act." At Ronan's statement, Kevin nodded.

Ronan had known that's what Mrs. Knight had really wanted to do. Every now and then she would wonder if she would have time to go into acting since Big Time Rush was ending, but figured it was something that still had to wait, especially if Katie was still trying to decide what _she _really wanted to do; go into acting for herself or become a talent manager. As the case was, until she was steady on her feet, Mrs. Knight didn't feel comfortable doing whatever it was that made her happy. Ronan felt for her, she had always put her own dreams on hold for other people and never complained.

"So why did you want to come talk to me about this?" Ronan questioned. "I mean, as much as I love this whole thing that's going on." He waved his hands. "I have more pressing things to worry about, such as my own career, the upcoming tour, and the music I'm working on with other artists before getting started on the next album of my own band."

"I know what our kids are up to," Kevin replied, which caused Ronan to smile and laugh. "And frankly, I'm not surprised about it. Once Kendall and Katie get their minds set on something, it's all they think about." Kevin crossed his own arms. "I wanted to apologize to you for having them mess everything up for everyone and make things so awkward. I know I'm not their favorite person in the world, but I think they may have gotten the wrong idea about what I've said to them before."

"About you two getting back together?"

"My only thought at the moment is that I want to have a relationship with my family again and I think they're taking things a bit too far. I'm really not as bad as they're making me out to be."

"You have to admit that you really did shake up their lives," Ronan said, his own anger slightly starting to come out. "You made some mistakes and instead of owning up to them, you left. And then you defended a child abuser when you were one."

"I know, I know." Kevin held up a hand. "I feel terrible about everything I've done."

"And part of me doesn't think you do," Ronan continued. "In fact, I don't understand how anyone can get so angry that they would lay a hand on their child and then end up abandoning them. You can't come back and expect them to welcome you with open arms. It's not going to be that easy."

"I didn't say it would," Kevin replied shortly. "And I'd figured, out of anyone, you would at least understand me a little. I mean, growing up you faced a little bit of neglect yourself, from your mother, am I correct?"

Ronan was about to ask how he knew that, but then rationalized that Kacy had probably told him. It was still a bit of a weak subject for him. Aaron had always been the 'golden child' when it came to his family and as Ely was 'the baby', Ronan found himself stuck in the well known middle child spot. His father was typically the only one that paid a lot of attention to him and he was the only one in his family he was close to.

The neglect that he felt from his mother, who paid more attention to her eldest and youngest sons, had exhibited in different ways in his life as he was growing up and still affected him now. He barely went home to visit his family, never spoke of them unless the situation called for it or he was directly asked, and found himself working harder and harder as the years went by to try and prove something to them, though he never shared his achievements with them. His mother still wasn't particularly aware of the way he felt, he never wanted to talk about it, though she seemed to be doing a better job of trying to be more involved with his life.

_Damn it, _Ronan thought. Kevin was making a lot of sense. His situation was similar to that of Kevin trying to get back in his kid's and ex-wife's good graces who weren't making it easy for him. Ronan could still hear the hurt in her voice when she had called him to ask why he hadn't mentioned having received another award for his work and he responded saying he didn't think she would care. _Why does he have to be right?_

"And all I really want is for Kacy to be happy, no matter who she ends up with," Kevin continued.

"And you want it to be you?" Ronan pressed.

Kevin evaded the question by repeating, "I just want her to be happy. And Kendall and Katie too. I don't really believe they don't want me around. Things were going great these past couple of months; I believe they'll get better again."

"So what does this have to do with me?"

"I'm hoping that you can help me show them that I'm trying,"

Ronan crossed his legs in the opposite direction before he uncrossed them. Leaning forward, he gazed right into Kevin's green eyes with his own green ones. "You can start by not throwing money around so much. Not only does it make you seem like a showoff, but it'll just drive them even further away, making it seem like all you care about is the gifts you can give them."

Kevin bristled for a moment, his eyes flashing. But then he turned his head away and let out a long breath. The two sat in silence for a long moment, watching each other carefully. It was a strange situation to be in generally, and agreeing to help Kevin was sure to have been a way for Ronan to have signed his soul to the devil.

And yet, if he was in Kevin's shoes he would probably do the same thing. In fact, he wondered what he would do if Robert had wanted to come back, after having had finished his anger management classes and his probation. Ronan immediately scowled. _That's probably best not to think about, _he thought. Instead, he wondered what it was that Kacy really wanted. She had willingly gone out to dinner with Kevin and had said she had a nice time, and he could see the confusion in her eyes.

On one hand, the kids would have their father again and no matter how much they had denied it before, it was obvious they had wanted him back. But on the other hand, was it wise to put them through that potential hurt once more?

Ronan made up his mind.

Kacy had always put her desires aside to let other people be happy, maybe it was time that he did the same. She was old enough to decide by herself who or what it was that made her happy and, ultimately, it was none of his business.

* * *

**A/N: **I'm sorry this chapter is kind of short and that it took a while to get up, I had a bit of writer's block I was working through. I promise the next one will be longer.

I really wanted to do a chapter with Ronan and Kevin interacting and I think it was interesting to write because it gave them something in common as well as gave a bit more of Ronan's back-story. Also, while I enjoy writing the antics that BTR and DE are going through to get Mrs. Knight and Ronan back together (Which I'm going to continue to write as the story goes on) I think I'm going to shift the tone of the story a bit.

Fun Fact, because I reminded myself of it while writing the quick blurb about Ellie; Tate and Ellie were the Jacksons' parents' names that we first came up with before changing them to Reed and Renee.

Cheers,

-Riles


End file.
